OGDEN — Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for Jeremy Marshall, charged with capital homicide in the Dec. 14 death of his 3-month-old stepdaughter.
The child, Kennedy Lucille Marshall, was pronounced dead of a head injury at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City after helicopter transport from McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden.
Marshall was arrested Dec. 26 following an investigation.
Under the state’s capital homicide statute, prosecutors must file a formal notice of intent to seek the death penalty within 60 days of a defendant’s entering a plea to the charge.
That came March 12, when Marshall pleaded innocent, according to court records.
“They simply opted not to file it,” Marshall’s public defender Randall Marshall, no relation, said after a Tuesday status conference in 2nd District Court.
Judge Scott Hadley continued the status conference to Aug. 7. Marshall did not ask for a trial date.
Marshall is still charged with capital homicide, also titled aggravated murder, and faces possible sentences of life without parole or life with the possibility of parole. He has been held in Weber County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail since his arrest.
Prosecutors assigned to the case were not immediately available for comment, but other staffers in the Weber County Attorney’s Office said the case was thoroughly discussed when the decision not to seek the death penalty was reached.
Marshall told police he accidentally struck Kennedy’s head on a crib “with substantial force,” according to a probable cause statement.
Ogden Detective Lane Olson wrote in the charging document: “Jeremy Marshall’s 3-month-old stepdaughter was transported to McKay-Dee Hospital due to unresponsive behavior.
“The child was examined in the emergency room. The child had brain injury consistent with non-accidental trauma … The child was pronounced dead at Primary Children’s Hospital. Primary Children’s Hospital confirmed the child’s injuries were non-accidental.
“Marshall told family members he caused the death of the child.”
Emergency medical personnel had responded to the child’s home in the 2600 block of Van Buren Avenue the morning of Dec. 14 after a 911 call about the injured child.
The homicide charge was the first in the city filed since January 2010, according to Ogden Police Department records.
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