SALT LAKE CITY — An Ogden man found guilty of fatally stabbing a good Samaritan who intervened in a fight has lost his appeal to the Utah Court of Appeals.

In a decision released Thursday, the court ruled that Xavier Soto’s defense was not constitutionally deficient and that his conviction on a charge of first-degree murder stands. Soto, now 22, was sentenced on March 4, 2020, to 16 years to life in prison for the Feb. 2, 2019, death of DJ Parkinson, 28.

Witnesses testified at trial that Parkinson, one of several bystanders, hit Soto, who had pulled his girlfriend to the ground by her hair and, according to one witness, was holding a knife. Parkinson then ran, Soto chasing him, according to testimony by Parkinson’s girlfriend and backed by home surveillance video.

Parkinson’s girlfriend said Soto returned to the home alone, which Ogden police testified also was bolstered by the surveillance video.

Defense attorneys argued at trial that it was another man, not Soto, who chased and stabbed Soto. The jury rejected that assertion and gave weight to the testimony of Parkinson’s girlfriend and an Ogden police detective who narrated the playback of the surveillance video.

Appellate attorneys contended that Soto’s conviction should be overturned because the trial defense failed to object to hearsay testimony by the detective. Without the detective’s “bolstering” testimony, the jury could have discounted the girlfriend’s testimony because of her impairment, they said.

According to police reports, Parkinson’s girlfriend was holding a beer when police talked to her. She admitted she had been drinking, smoked marijuana and used methamphetamine that evening. She told a detective that she had been hearing voices that night and she admitted at trial that she has a history of schizophrenia.

But the Court of Appeals’ opinion said the jury could have reached a conclusion that the girlfriend’s story and the video footage supported one another even without the detective’s “alleged bolstering” testimony.

Parkinson’s girlfriend also could not identify Soto in a police photo lineup, but she testified it was night, she had not met Soto and she was focusing on her boyfriend.

“Soto has not established a reasonable likelihood of a different outcome had the detective’s allegedly improper statements not been admitted,” the ruling said.

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