Prosecutors begin push for Lovell death sentence
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Douglas Anderson Lovell, center, watches jury selection during his murder trial in Ogden, Utah, on Monday, March, 16, 2015. He is charged with aggravated murder for allegedly kidnapping and killing 39-year-old Joyce Yost in 1985 to keep her from testifying against him in a rape case.
Douglas Anderson Lovell watches jury selection during his murder trial in Ogden, Utah, on Monday, March, 16, 2015. He is charged with aggravated murder for allegedly kidnapping and killing 39-year-old Joyce Yost in 1985 to keep her from testifying against him in a rape case.
OGDEN — Prosecutors Friday began their bid to convince a three-woman, nine-man jury to order the execution of Doug Lovell, as his sentencing hearing opened with victim impact testimony.
Officials said they couldn’t speculate on exactly how long the hearing will run except to say at least a week, and definitely longer than the three days of trial testimony it took to convict Lovell in the 1985 murder of 39-year-old Joyce Yost of South Ogden. Second Judge Mike DiReda’s calendar has been cleared for the hearing through April 1 if needed.
The trial moved quickly toward conviction this week with Lovell’s own admissions from the stand at his prior sentencing hearing in 1993 read into the record. Plus the jury was read his unwitting confession, taped surreptitiously during prison visits: “Capital murder is the worst thing you can do. I committed a first-degree felony to cover a first-degree felony … At the very least they’re going to give me life without parole, that’s the only deal they would make.”
He also commented almost boastfully at temporarily getting away with murder. “They’re going to come after me. I made them look like fools, especially with how close Joyce lived to the South Ogden Police Department.”
The Utah Supreme Court in 2010 allowed Lovell to withdraw his 1993 guilty plea to Yost’s murder, citing technical errors.
The defense throughout the trial has asked the jury to be patient, engaging in virtually no cross examination. Friday they promised a compelling picture of Lovell’s dysfunctional upbringing and possible brain damage. Testimony Friday was highlighted by family members of Yost describing their loss.
Lovell attempted to imply some level of impairment when he took the stand in 1993.
He said he was drinking heavily during the time he killed Yost and using drugs continually. “The days and night melted together,” he said, per the transcript of the 1993 hearing read into the record this week.
Which produced a barrage of questions from then lead prosecutor, the late Bill Daines, questions to the effect that Lovell nonetheless had the presence of mind to wear a makeshift hairnet to avoid leaving any of his hair at the scene when he broke into Yost’s apartment the night he killed her. Also, that he had the presence of mind to change the sheets on her bed when she cut her hand on the knife he was brandishing, plus wash the bloodstains on the mattress and flip it. And pack her suitcase to make it appear she left on a trip.
Lovell solemnly answered each question “Yes,” or “Yes sir.”
“You knew how to get a hold of people to kill Joyce Yost, didn’t you?” Daines’ line of questioning continued in 1993, referring to two prison buddies Lovell recruited to kill her who didn’t follow through. “Yes,” he answered.
“You had not trouble doing that, right?” “Yes.”
The Weber County Attorney’s Office leads off in the hearing, followed by Lovell’s public defenders’ effort to mitigate the case. The jury must find the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances before they can opt for a sentence of execution.
The defense must overcome a compelling list of aggravating circumstances, including the fact the murder was done in concert with crimes of aggravated burglary and aggravated kidnapping, and was done to prevent Yost from testifying to Lovell’s rape of her three months earlier, in retaliation for previously testifying against him, and in attempting to derail governmental processes.
“So he strikes at the system itself as well as striking at Joyce Yost,” prosecutor Gary Heward said in his closing arguments Wednesday.
Lovell was convicted of Yost’s rape based on the transcript of her testimony from her preliminary hearing read into the record at his December 1985 rape trial. He is currently serving 15-years-to life for the rape.
The jury has two choices in sentencing Lovell for strangling Yost to death, death or life with possible parole. Life without parole was not added to the capital homicide statute until 1993 and is not retroactive.