FARMINGTON — A judge has granted more time for the Davis County Attorney’s Office to decide if it is going to seek the death penalty for the man accused of killing 4-year-old Ethan Stacy.
Judge Glen C. Dawson on Tuesday approved an agreement between prosecutors and defense attorneys to give prosecutors until early December to file their notice of intent to seek the death penalty for Nathanael Warren Sloop.
Sloop, 33, of Layton, briefly appeared in 2nd District Court.
He and his wife, Stephanie Sloop, the boy’s mother, are charged with aggravated murder, second-degree felony child abuse, second-degree felony obstruction of justice and third-degree felony abuse or desecration of a body in the boy’s death.
Nathanael Sloop entered not guilty pleas to the charges July 10.
By court rules, prosecutors have 60 business days after a defendant has entered a not guilty plea to aggravated murder to file with the court their intent to seek the death penalty.
Ethan’s disfigured body was found May 11, 2010, near Powder Mountain the day after Layton police received a report the boy had disappeared from the Sloops’ apartment.
Ethan had come to Utah on May 1 from Florida to spend the summer with his mother.
The Sloops are accused of abusing Ethan for days in their Layton apartment before he died May 9, 2010.
Stephanie Sloop has a hearing set for Oct. 16.
Another hearing for Nathanael Sloop is set for Dec. 8.
Defense attorney Richard Mauro said in court that both sides are trying to resolve a number of issues.
After the hearing, he would not say what those issues are but did say both sides have “been discussing possible resolutions.”
Mauro would not get specific on what those resolutions could be and said no plea deal has been offered.
“Issues in cases like this can be complicated, and we want to get it right now and not be dealing with these issues 25 years from now.”
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