Salt Lake Tribune | 2003-10-09 | Page 27

TheSalt Lake Tribune UTAH BS Thursday, October9, 20083 Defenseclaims boyfriendis killer Husband on trial: Lawyer says the wife-slaying case “doesn’t make any sense” face and torso with a sawed-off shotgun. Prosecutor David Wayment conceded Pino was “a coward . . . who unheroically hid” in the By STEPHEN Hunt closet, leaving Sharee Hatch The Salt Lake Tribune alone to face her killer. “He’s a drug dealer and not a brave man, and he’s dishonest,” Wayment said with chagrin. “That’s our eyewitness, except that his ‘eyes’ were in the closet where he was hiding.” Nevertheless, Wayment insisted Steven Hatch murdered his wife out of anger and frustration with their ongoing acrimonious divorce. Waymentwill bolster his case PROVO — Alleging sloppy police work, time frames that don’t compute and an unreliable star witness, the defense said Wednesdaythat the case against accused killer Robert Steven Hatch “doesn’t make any sense.” Hatch, 33, is on trial in 4th District Court for the shotgun slaying of his estranged wife, Sharee Hatch, 31, at her Spanish Fork home July 7, 2002. Hatch, a cabinetmaker who had been living in Colorado, is charged with murder, aggravated burglary and violation of a protective order. But during opening remarks to the jury, defense attorney Jack Morgan claimed the killer is the prosecution’s own “eyewitness” to the slaying. Morgan said Mike Pino — who was Sharee Hatch’s live-in boyfriend — told police several different versions of events, later acknowledging he lied about seeing someone resembling Steven Hatch inside the house that night. Based on Pino’s initial statements, police tracked down and arrested Steven Hatch that night. Pino later said he saw no one because he allegedly was inside a walk-in closet searching for a weapon when an intruder kicked down the locked bedroom door and blasted Sharee Hatch in the 11:36 p.m. — simply did not have time to kill his wife, run a quarter-mile to his truck while taking apart the murder weapon, then drive 60 miles to Carbon County. Morgan said jurors must also subtract from Hatch’s travel time the 20 minutes he spentat a Helper convenience store helping a couple who had car trouble. his bloody clothing, showered, washed and broken down the with DNA evidence that alleg- shotgun, then scattered the parts through the neighborhood. That is the only way to ex- was found inside a Neoprene plain the absence of blood in the hallway outside the bloodspattered bedroom, Morgan said. He faulted police for failing to treat the adjacent bathroom as part of the crime scene. He said the shower was not tested for The Salt Lake Tribune Draper and its 23 police officers can let out their breath. After only two days of deliberation, the Utah Supreme Court on Wednesday validated the city’s refusal to consider an initiative petition aimed at reversing the City Council’s decision to create its own police force. Initiative sponsors and nearly 1,200 petition signatories wanted the south Salt Lake Valley city of 29,300 to return to contracting with the Salt Lake County sheriff for law enforcement. Justices wrote in their oneparagraph ruling that the initiative petition would allow voters to make administrative, rather than legislative, decisions. They said that the petition “was properly rejected by the Draper City Recorder.” State statute limits initiative petitions to legislative matters. Mayor Darrell Smith this weeksaid he was sympathetic to police officers in the city’s 3 month-old force who were anxious about their job security. “We've tried to assure them, and we feel like we’ve made the The Environmental ManagementDirectorate, Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base (AFB), UT, announces the availability of an Environmental Assessment (EA) and proposes a Finding Of No Significant impact (FONSI!) for the proposedaction. The United States Air Force proposes to construct a thermal spray addition to Building 505 at Hill Air Force Base (AFB). Based on the results of this EA, the proposed action will have no significant adverse effects on the human environmentor any of the environmental resources described in the EA. Therefore, issuance of a FONS!is appropriate and preparation of an Environmental Impact Statementis not necessary. A copy of the documentdetailing the proposal is available for public examination at the NEPA web page @ http://em.hill.af.mili/conservation/NEPA/index.htm Comments will be accepted until November 10, 2003. Direct comments and questions to Kay Winn [phone], 00-ALC/EM, 7274 Wardleigh Rd., Hill AFB, UT 84056-5137. OPENS TOMORROW 7*ME mask had been planted by someone to incriminate Hatch. Morgan insisted Hatch — who was arrested in Helper 68 minutes after Pino called 911 at IMPROVEMENT, REMODELING & DECORATING Draper Police Department. “It’s great to finally have this issue behind us andto be able to BR |AN SANTOS 2 Roth Concept Centers will provide for } your entertainment, cooking = demonstrations with famous chefs. Learn their secrets and how to cook great food. doubted”its decision to form the [e-mail] ding (world rae at es) COOKING DEMOS right decision,” Smith said. City Manager Erik Keck added that the city “never focus on the continued partnership between the Draper City Police Department and the residents of Draper,” Keck said in a written statement. “Our officers are doing an excellentjob.” Two initiative sponsors Angela Anderson and Judith Sehimeier ran for at-large City Council seats in Tuesday’s primary election, but neither advanced as finalists. Sehlmeier says she accepts results at the state’s high court and poll booths, but wishes Draperhad refused the initiative “when weinitially put it before the city, before people invested their time getting signatures.” “T’ve spend 800 to 1,000 hours letting citizens know that there’s a process they can go through if they’re not happy with something the city is doing,” she said. “I’m afraid this decision is going to make citizens leery of the wholeinitiative process.” poe eee 25TH DESERET MORNING NEWS FALL Draper OKto ignore initiative, court rules By Karyn Hs1ao Proposed Final Environmental Assessment for the Thermal Spray Addition, Building 505 Hill Air Force Base, Utah neighbors heard gunfire about 20 to 30 minutes before Pinocalled for help. During that time, Morgan said, Pino could have changed going to allow that to happen.” Pino’s motive for murder? Morganalleges that the day she was killed, a $1,500 check was written to Pino from Sharee Hatch’s account. “It’s signed, but it’s not her signature.” Morgan said. “Mike Pino, or someone known to Mike Pino, committed this crime.” The United States Air Force Announces a He added that Sharee Hatch’s edly proves a drop of Sharee Hatch’s blood was on one of Steven Hatch’s socks. He said Steven Hatch’s DNA hunting mask found by police at the end of a trail of disassembled shotgun parts leading away from the murder scene. Wayment also will present evidence of Hatch’s history of domestic violence, including videotape of a May 2001 protective order hearing in which his wife testified he had punched and kicked her while she was pregnant. But Morgan claims the drop of blood got on Hatch’s sock because police were careless in handling other bloody evidence, and he intimated the hunting traces of blood, nor was the drain trap examined. But Morgan said that the “coup de grace ... the most baf fling part of this case,” is Pino’s claim that Sharee Hatch would lock herself in her upstairs bedroom after hearing someone breaking into her house, while her four children slept across the hall. “Is there a parent alive who would not be standing between her children and harm?” asked Morgan. “A mama bear is not UT SUE mAs EXPO CENTER 9575 SOUTH STATE ST. Saturday, October 12 See Chef Adalberto Diaz at Come. what’s new for your home. 12:45 , 3:45 and 7:45 p.m. OVER 500 EXHIBITS DECORATING DEMOS Good Things Utahis the only local one-hour midmorning talk/news show in Utah. 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