The Utah Court of Appeals upheld a guilty plea and concurrent prison terms, rejecting rule 11, ineffective-assistance, competency, illegal-sentence, and sentencing-discretion challenges.
The Utah Court of Appeals held that credible officer testimony established probable cause for a plain-view drug seizure despite missing body-camera footage and later inconclusive field testing.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed an object-rape conviction because repeated accounts of the victim’s report added no new facts and caused no Strickland prejudice.
The Utah Court of Appeals held that a victim’s family relationship with an unassigned judge did not justify disqualifying the assigned judge or the entire county bench.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed rape and aggravated-assault convictions, holding that counsel’s challenged evidentiary choices fit a coherent trial strategy.
The Utah Court of Appeals rejected most ineffective-assistance claims and a rule 23B motion, but ordered correction of a presentence report’s offense classification.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of theft-by-deception charges because broken construction promises alone did not show deceptive intent when money was obtained.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed child-sex-abuse convictions and mandatory life without parole, rejecting ineffective-assistance and state constitutional claims.
The Utah Court of Appeals held that a decades-late restitution judgment could not be justified as correction of a clerical error on the existing record.
The Utah Court of Appeals reversed a DUI conviction because a late-night deadlock instruction coercively pressured minority jurors and defense counsel was ineffective for failing to object.
On remand, the Utah Court of Appeals held that Utah’s single-criminal-episode statute barred retrial and ordered dismissal on double-jeopardy grounds.
The Utah Court of Appeals rejected constitutional and discovery challenges to convictions based on an uncle’s position of special trust.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed negligent homicide, holding that speculative fear of a pursuing driver did not require acceptance of a compulsion defense.
The Utah Court of Appeals rejected four ineffective-assistance claims and held that body-camera footage of a victim’s post-disclosure demeanor was properly admitted.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed an aggravated-murder conviction, rejecting challenges to voir dire, graphic evidence, intent testimony, jury instructions, and trial counsel’s performance.
The Utah Court of Appeals vacated three credit-card convictions under merger doctrine and required an on-record resolution of presentence-report objections, while affirming consecutive sentences.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed a murder conviction, finding overwhelming evidence that thirteen shots were retaliatory rather than justified defense.
The Utah Court of Appeals vacated an aggravated-assault conviction for insufficient evidence but affirmed sexual-abuse and object-rape convictions.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed child-sex-abuse convictions while a concurrence criticized an unbalanced verdict-urging instruction.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed rape and forcible-sodomy convictions, holding that an ambiguous reference to counsel did not end police questioning.
The Utah Court of Appeals held that sufficient evidence supported a fatal negligent-driving conviction and that any speeding-instruction error was harmless.
The Utah Court of Appeals declined to overrule State v. Heath and affirmed object-rape and sexual-abuse convictions against evidentiary and due-process challenges.
The Utah Court of Appeals held that negligent charging delay did not violate the Sixth Amendment where claimed parole and plea consequences were speculative.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed child-sex-abuse and witness-tampering convictions, finding no material Brady violation or prejudicial attorney error.