An 18-year-old man shot execution-style on a golf course and left for dead allegedly because he wore the wrong color of clothing. A father who killed his estranged wife and their two young sons, just 4 and 6 years old, before killing himself. A woman brutally beaten and killed allegedly by her best friend's 18-year-old son.
The cold-blooded nature of those homicides was both chilling and disturbing to the public and police. Yet despite these events and several other violent
crimes in Utah in 2009, for the second year in a row, a record low was set for the number of homicides in a year.
There were 34 homicides in Utah in 2009, according to statistics kept by the Deseret News, fewer than the 38 homicides the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification reported in 2008. It's also the lowest number since the state began keeping track in 1978.
The Deseret News counts all first-degree felony homicides in its statistics, some second-degree felony homicides such as child-abuse homicide, slayings on federal land such as Indian reservations and incidents that were originally charged as murder, even if the defendant pleaded to a lesser charge in court.
The BCI counts only first-degree felony homicides and manslaughter in its statistics and does not tally homicides committed on federal land. Neither the BCI nor the News included automobile homicide, officer-involved shootings or fatal incidents that were determined to be in self-defense in order to stay consistent with figures compiled from years past.
Law enforcers are reserved in their comments about the tally of homicides. Police say even one homicide is too many and avoid using terms such as "just" 34. But many admit the low number of incidents in 2009 did not go unnoticed.
Unprecedented year
The state's largest city had an unprecedented year. Salt Lake police investigated three homicides — the lowest yearly total in more than a decade that at least one homicide detective could remember. In 2008, the city investigated 13 homicides, and 16 in 2007, the year of the Trolley Square tragedy.
There were actually four homicides within the city itself, but one of them occurred on the freeway and was investigated by the Utah Highway Patrol.
The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office investigated two homicides. West Valley police investigated four homicides in 2009. That figure could go up, however, depending on the outcome of the Susan Powell missing person case. There were also four homicides each in Ogden and West Jordan.
The drop in homicides follows a national trend that has some experts scratching their heads. Despite a struggling economy, which is typically a time when crime rates rise, preliminary FBI statistics for the first half of 2009 show a drop in crime including a 10 percent decrease in murder and manslaughter. In addition, property crimes fell by 6.1 percent, violent crimes by 4.4 percent, car thefts by 19 percent, rape fell by 3.3 percent, robbery by 6.5 percent and arsons declined more than 8 percent, according to the report.
Gang violence
At the start of 2009, gangs and gang violence once again gripped the state's attention. Cesar Ramirez, 18, was inside a vehicle with several other people when a carload of rival gang members pulled up next to them on the freeway near 2100 South and shot him. The two groups had been involved in an earlier altercation.
Less than a week after Ramirez died, 16-year-old Esteban Manuel Saidi was shot and killed during a fight between Kearns High School students a block away from the school.
"We can't keep having children die in between meetings," 3rd District Juvenile Judge Andrew Valdez said shortly after that incident during a meeting of the newly formed Governor's Gang Task Force.
Two weeks after that, JoJo Brandstatt, 18, was taken to a West Valley golf course and was shot and killed execution-style, allegedly by a 14-year-old gang member because Brandstatt wore the wrong color shirt.
Brandstatt's mother, Elka Fernandez, told reporters that her son was never officially "jumped in" as a gang member. But he wanted to "fit in" with others, which is why he wore red, despite his mother's pleas to steer him away from a gang lifestyle.
Before Brandstatt was killed, he made a request to call his mother. His captors told him no.
"It's really hard … hard to know my son's only request was to call me, and that they didn't even let him do that," Fernandez sobbed in May. "I know he thought, 'I should have listened to my mom.' "
In July, 21-year-old Krystal Flores, an innocent bystander, was attending a party when gunfire erupted between two rival gangs. She was caught in the middle and killed.
Communities have been more active in doing their part to help troubled youths and attempt to curb gang violence since the July 2008 slaying of Maria Del Carmen Menchaca, a 7-year-old girl shot and killed while playing in her driveway by a stray bullet during a gang-related drive-by shooting, said Lt. Steve Anjewierden, head of the Salt Lake Metro Gang Unit.
"I think those efforts are continuing," he said. "We need to provide community opportunities to the kids. We're reaching out to parents to provide parent education. It takes a community effort — school, law enforcement — to come at it from all angles. That's when it's most effective."
Many young victims
Six of Utah's homicide victims were teenagers, and four were toddlers or infants. Sixteen of the state's homicide victims were 25 years old or younger. In five homicides, the alleged perpetrator was a teenager.
One of the more high-profile homicides of 2009 is also one of the most puzzling. Kim Hain, 33, was brutally beaten in her bedroom in May. Neighbors grieved in the days that followed and gave interviews to the media about the slain mother of two, including Martin Vuksinick, 18, who told the Deseret News, "She never had an enemy in the world. … Why her? It's so shocking."
Not long after, Vuksinick was arrested and charged in connection with her death.
Domestic violence
If gangs were the talk of the first half of 2009, the second half was domestic violence.
Utah Domestic Violence Council executive director Judy Kasten Bell said domestic violence-related homicides were down at the end of November. But that changed in December when Melissa Ann Matern, 31, and her two sons, 6-year-old Gabriel and 4-year-old Raiden, were shot and killed inside their apartment by Matern's estranged husband and the boys' father, Justin Zachariah Matern, 34.
In many cases of domestic violence, a partner feels a possessiveness toward the other person, Bell said. "They have such an ownership of that person; they don't want anyone else to have them. Then they realize what they've done."
For those who are afraid of a former or estranged spouse or fear there may be violence, there are several hotlines available, including the Utah Domestic Violence hotline at 1-800-897-LINK (5465), or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).
Contributing: Associated Press
e-mail: preavy@desnews.com