Woman lives Western history. See Page B1 Wednesday Thursday Vernal tunnel restored. See Page A12 ren-day jcast i page A7 Mostly cloudy with rain. Mainly cloudy. Mostly sunny. Single Copy 500 Wednesday, April 21, 2004 Vernal, Utah 84078 112th Year No. 16 20 Pages SUPPORT OUR TROOPS Express online: www.vernal.com iavNwed. nlghtXll -W - - v 777 JUL By Maureen Spencer Express Writer Facing one of the toughest crowds he could hope for, MG Brian Tarbet, Adjutant General of the Utah National Guard, told Vemal families Friday that this was probably the hardest time for the troops since the 1457th left for the war zone in Iraq. Tarbet had flown to Vernal to meet with families and employers of the 1457th Engineer Battalion awaiting await-ing him at the Armory on a whirlwind whirl-wind tour of National Guard units around the state. He was in Vernal to address issues facing Guard families fami-lies now that the extension of local troop time in Iraq had been received officially from Washington. This same group of people had been planning community welcome wel-come home celebrations a scant two weeks before Friday's meeting and their soldiers had already left Iraq anticipating their return home. "Some of you watched guardsmen returning home to Salt Lake on the news. It was tough to see their joy when we were getting bad news," he said. He assured his audience, "We'll have another welcome!" "The 1457th was not "singled out. They are one of 17 units from seven states and are a big piece of a bigger big-ger piece. There are a substantial amount of people involved." The extended service time in the Middle East, he said was clearly a response to the events during the past two to three weeks, adding "Worst case scenario would mean they would be there until February 2005." The official Pentagon extension issued last week was for "possibly" 1 20 more days. The clearest message that Tarbet brought was "uncertainty." "We do know that the 1457th is extended. We do know that they will not be going back exactly as Man pleads guilty to murder in Daggett Co. By Steven R. Wallis Express Editor Last Friday, Michael David Heffelfinger changed his plea to guilty in the double homicide of two Vernal hunters in October 2001, and he was sentenced to the Utah State Penitentiary for the rest of his natural life. A week before Friday's hearing in Heber, attorneys for Heffelfinger, 25, offered a plea agreement to Daggett County Attorney Dennis Shauna Strange, shows pictures of Carter family Judd. Heffelfinger after court hearing. was charged in the slayings of Brad W. Gross and Kelly Carter, both of Vernal, In the agreement, Heffelfinger agreed to plea guilty to t counts of aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated robbery and to testify in the upcoming trial of his father, Lewis Heffelfinger, in exchange for Judd not seeking the death penalty. In the agreement, Heffelfinger, originally from New Mexico, said that on Oct. 21, 2001, he intentionally intention-ally participated in the murders of Gross, 23, and Carter, 27. Before Friday's hearing, the families fami-lies of Carter and Gross, agreed to the plea agreement after a three-hour session with attorney Judd. ffsKgDougj ftiraj$, xl ) Q Ik. A " A t -urn :i rMam:-:" It. "Wv-jj Vernal families had many questions for Adjutant General Brian Tarbet disappointing time for the local National Guard deployment in Iraq. they were in Baghdad," the Utah Guard leader told those assembled. What he couldn't tell them created cre-ated a much Jarger list.. "We don't know the duration the' troops will be extended," he continued. He also didn't know where the 1457th would be stationed or what their mission would be. "The questions about leaves is a common theme," he noted, saying that no answers are certain but that it is "a little unlikely" that there will be continued leaves. Additional tension is building for families with greatly reduced ability "I have no opposition to the death penalty in this case, but usually such cases are strung out for 15 to 20 years and then there is still a chance they won't be sentenced to death," Judd said. The plea agreement says that after the two Heffelfingers had been in the Flaming Gorge area for two days, they saw two hunters sitting in a truck, located less than half a mile from the town of Dutch John. They decided to take the truck from them. "I walked up to the passenger side of the truck and my father went to the driver's side, Heffelfinger states in the plea agreement. "He had his .38 pistol and I had l ' 41 ' - ' ' - . ' ! V g)g)Sft to communicate with their troops. No addresses are available yet for the Vernal troops who were caught off-guard in Kuwait, preparing to return home. "We-den't see a change soon for increasing communications. Currently, the troops are crowded 70 to a tent," and he assured families fami-lies that there were pretty good dining din-ing halls, food, laundry and air conditioning. con-ditioning. "It's not as primitive as when they were going into Baghdad," Tarbet told his audience, noting this is a creative group of people who know -4 r fe ' i p ( John Green comforts daughter, Kasey Carter, wife of one of the victims, after sentencing in murder case. my .44 caliber pistol, which were concealed in our pockets. We spoke to the men for a short time making small talk and then my father shot the driver, Gross, several times with his .38 pistol and shot the passenger, pas-senger, Carter." The two men took the truck belonging to Gross and fled from the scene. The two were captured the next day southeast of Price hiding in a shed along some train tracks on Route 6. A third hunter, Sage McCormick o Vernal, heard the shots and found the bodies of his fellow hunters. He reported the murders. Before Judge Anthoney W. Scholfield, 4th District Court, sentenced Heffelfinger, Shauna Strange, a friend of the families, spoke to Heffelfinger. "Your family can see you in prison, pris-on, but because of you this family can only go to his grave," Strange said. "No words can comfort the grief this family is going through." After a long silence, Heffelfinger said he was sorry for the family's loss. "I hope today closure can begin for what I did," he said. Scholfield sentenced Heffelfinger and his staff at this uncertain and how to work hard and provide facilities facil-ities for themselves. Family questions aimed at Tarbet included concerns the engineering tioops might not be trained for wartime war-time conditions. "These troops are Combat engineers, and they've seen a much action as anybody. They're prepared," he responded. "These guys will do a pretty good job as soon as they know where they're doing it!" He said the 1457th C unit from Spanish Fork had been named the See Guard on A11 to two commitments in the Utah State Prison for a period of the remainder of his natural life without with-out the possibility of parole. For aggravated robbery, he was sentenced to two terms of not less than 5 years but which could be for life in prison. The life sentences will run consecutively. The two not less than 5 years to life sentences will run concurrently. "I am glad this part of the trial is over," said Sage McCormick, who was at the hearing. "Perhaps the families can find a little comfort in what happened today." "One down and one to go," said J Greene, Carter's father-in-law, about the hearing. "Of course this doesn't change anything that they did," said Jeane Gross, grandmother of Brad Gross. "Rarely do you see someone in his Heffelfinger's position take responsibility for what he has done," said Ed Brass, attorney for Heffelfinger. Lewis Heffelfinger's trial is scheduled to begin in October. West NiOe virus couOtil hit If the State of Utah follows national trends, it could be hit hard by the West Nile Virus this summer. Last year, Colorado had 2,947 human cases of the disease and 61 deaths, reported the Utah Department of Health last week. The escalation occurred after the virus made its first appearance in the state the year before. "We don't often have the opportunity oppor-tunity to have an advance press briefing about disease outbreaks because often we don't know it's coming," said Scott Williams, executive director of the Utah Department of Health. Health officials are concerned because 2003 was the worse season sea-son for West Nile to date. Last year West Nile Virus was detected in nine counties: in mosquitoes in two counties (Uintah and Utah); dead birds in Grand County; sentinel sen-tinel chicken flocks in three counties coun-ties and in horses in six counties. U first human case occurred last year in Uintah County. Also, last week of 27 horses reported with West Nile, 16 were found to have the disease. "We have reason to be concerned con-cerned that we could have a fair number of human cases in Utah this year," Williams said. "It's a matter of limiting and minimizing the impact on the state." Most people who get West Nile Virus will not have any symptoms. symp-toms. A small number of those CairodlDdlaties ttacfcHe toyglh) co&flifDtiy pssoaes By Virginia Harrington Express Writer Lynn Runolfson and John Mathis, candidates for Utah Congressional District 55, tackled difficult political issues during a meeting of Business and Professional Women. The meeting was held April 15 at Stella's. The first issue discussed was the continuing problem of domestic violence, vio-lence, which leads to overcrowded and underfunded crisis centers for women and children throughout the state. Runolfson said one solution to the overcrowding would be to eliminate wasteful spending of government money. This would allow for bigger and better crisis centers. He noted that during his eight years as chairman of the Utah State Fair, he cut the fair's deficit by hundreds of thousands of dollars. "We could spend better," stated Runolfson. Mathis agreed with the need for wiser use of tax dollars but declared that wouldn't solve the main problem of domestic violence. He emphasized the need to find the root cause of the problem for a final solution. Mathis stated, stat-ed, "If one woman has no place to go, then we as a society have not done our duty." The candidates were in complete agreement concerning equal wages for equal work for women in the work force. Mathis said the first step is to look at the work being done to determine that it truly is equal. Runolfson said the same skills in the same job should result in equal pay, regardless of gender. He added that businesses need to be educated if the situation is to change. This takes time, he said, but can be expedited with education through the Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations. Runolfson said one of the most pressing problems for District 55 is the stranglehold put on the area by federal ownership of land. Too little of the mineral lease money comes back to Uintah County, preventing the area from making needed improvements in higher education and economic development. Runolfson also noted that the destruction of our moral rights is a serious problem faced by the entire nation. He cited gay marriages as one example exam-ple of this decay. "Gay marriage affects all of us if it's passed anywhere," he said. He explained that this would lead to more claims against Social Security and insurance, causing rates to increase. Mathis said he prefers to look at the issues as opportunities rather than problems. He stated, "We have some of the greatest resources in the nation right here." One way to keep more of the funds from those resources would be to have a permanent, guaranteed representative from the county on the Community Impact Board (CIB). Mathis was the last representative from Uintah County; the current representative rep-resentative is from Daggett County. Mathis explained that there must be a change in legislation before a permanent seat from the county can be established. estab-lished. If the legislation is not forthcomii.g, then litigation will be the only solution. Mathis further stated that economic development is rooted in educational opportunities. Uintah County yearly contributes anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of the funds controlled by the CIB, which now holds more than $280 million. Mathis asked, "Why can't we get the education center we need when we generate that amount of funds?" He answered his question by stating that the county commissioners need more control over local resources in addition to a permanent representative on the CIB. Runolfson said one solution to economic development would be to help the businesses already established in the area to grow, improve and develop. devel-op. This would create less of an impact on the communities than importing import-ing new businesses and would provide greater benefit Runolfson said he prefers a slow but steady amount of growth over the boom and bust econo- harder infected will have a fever syn drome and a smaller number will have brain tissue infection. Those infected may not show symptoms for two weeks and people over 50 are at higher risk for catching the disease. About 20 percent of those who contract the virus will show fever symptoms. Statistics show that one in 150 of those people could develop a neurological neu-rological disease like meningitis or encephalitis. Ten percent of those who develop a brain disease could die, or one in every 1,000 of those infected with the virus overall. Mosquitoes are mostly responsible for infecting humans. The disease is passed from birds to mosquitoes to humans or horses. hors-es. To prevent the risk of West Nile Virus, residents are being asked to reduce the exposure by using repellent with DEET when outside out-side from dusk until dawn. For adults, use repellents containing up to 35 percent DEET. For children chil-dren 2 months to 12 years, use repellents containing up to 10 percent DEET. Do not put DEET on children's hands or feet Residents are also advised to remove standing water around homes, including tires, cans, puddles, pud-dles, barrels, rain gutters, unused swimming pools, ponds, and stock tanks. See Candidates on A11 1