Death penalty

OGDEN — The defense hopes to inform the jury about false confessions in the upcoming death penalty murder trial of Jeremy Valdes.

But first comes the approval process public defenders, as opposed to private attorneys, must go through to persuade a judge to order the county to pay for an expert witness.

Lead counsel Gary Barr estimates costs in the $5,000 range for the expert he hopes to hire, once he persuades a judge of the necessity in a motion filed this week.

FARMINGTON — Nathanael Sloop was taking more than 300 pills of prescribed medications during the days before Ethan Stacy died, Sloop’s attorney said in court Thursday.

FARMINGTON — The case against Nathanael Sloop is moving forward with a three-day preliminary hearing beginning on March 27.

Sloop is accused of killing 4-year-old Ethan Stacy on May 9, 2010, in Layton.

Sloop, 34, of Layton, 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.

OGDEN — Lawyers for Matthew David Stewart, accused of gunning down a police officer during a pot raid at his Ogden home, are challenging Utah’s death-penalty law.

Weber County prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty if Stewart is convicted of aggravated murder and other charges.

The defense lawyers, including Randy Richards, recently filed a motion saying Utah’s law is unconstitutional because it leaves juries with no choice but the death penalty in cases of aggravated murder.

OGDEN — A 2nd District judge has ruled the death penalty constitutional, neither a violation of rights to life and dignity nor cruel and unusual punishment.

Judge Mark DeCaria’s rulings on a bevy of defense motions clears most of the final hurdles to the start of trial next month for Jeremy Valdes in the 2009 murders of Matthew Roddy, 30, and his mother, Pamela Jeffries, 56, in Roy.

In 36 pages of findings, DeCaria resolved the final 15 defense motions pending in the case, denying all but one.

OGDEN — The pile of defense motions in the way of Jeremy Valdes’ death penalty murder trial was whittled down somewhat this week in 2nd District Court.

In August, Valdes’ public defenders filed 18 motions raising numerous pretrial issues, including multiple challenges to the constitutionality of the death penalty.