Lovell murder trial gets under way Monday
Guards adjust the handcuffs on Douglas Lovell so he can take notes in court in Ogden on Friday, March 6, 2015. Lovell is charged in a murder case from 1985.
Douglas Lovell enters the courtroom in Ogden on Friday, March 6, 2015. Lovell is charged in a murder case from 1985.
Douglas Lovell take notes in court in Ogden on Friday, March 6, 2015. Lovell is charged in a murder case from 1985.
Douglas Lovell appeared in court in Ogden on Friday, March 6, 2015. Lovell is charged in a murder case from 1985.
OGDEN — Long-time inmate Doug Lovell goes on trial Monday for a nearly 30-year-old murder for which he once pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death.
At his 1993 sentencing hearing Lovell took the stand to testify in open court to how and why he killed 39-year-old Joyce Yost of South Ogden in 1985. The late 2nd District Judge Stanton Taylor then ordered his execution.
Since then numerous death warrants have come and gone as the case traveled the appeals route until 2010 when the Utah Supreme Court allowed Lovell to withdraw his 1993 guilty plea.
The high court cited technical errors in the taking of the plea, such as not verbally advising Lovell, now 57, in and out of prison since he was 19, that he had the right to a trial before an impartial jury. Lovell’s 2nd District Court docket, or index, alone on the aggravated murder charge is 131 pages long.
He’s currently serving a 15-years-to-life prison term for the rape of Yost. Lovell strangled her to prevent her from testifying to the rape, according to his own sworn testimony. Despite the fact she went missing, her preliminary hearing transcript on the rape charge was enough for conviction.
The capital homicide trial opens with two days or more of jury selection. The trial is scheduled to run through the month and into the first week of April before 2nd District Judge Michael DiReda.
Conviction would result in a likely week-long penalty phase where the jury would be asked to vote on condemning Lovell to death.
Lovell wasn’t charged with Yost’s murder until 1992. A break in the case came when Lovell made admissions during a prison visit from his ex-wife. She was wearing a wire at the time at the request of authorities.
The appeal life of the case was extended because of the unusual nature of Lovell’s plea bargain arrangement.
Prosecutors, including Deputy Weber County Attorney Gary Heward, still on the case today, agreed to forego the death penalty if Lovell could lead authorities to where he buried Yost. Despite a 5-week search that included backhoes and cadaver dogs in Ogden Valley led by the handcuffed Lovell, no trace of her remains were found.