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Show Tuttle given life in prison by Christopher Smart Wesley Allen Tuttle, the man convicted of first degree murder for the Sept. 26 slaying of a Salt Lake City woman at the Interstate 80 Summit Park off-ramp, was sentenced to life imprisonment Monday. A nine-woman, threman jury founds Tuttle guilty April 25 of the stabbing " death of 21-year-old Sydney Ann Merrick. Third District Court Judge Phillip Fishier announced the sentence after pondering since April 27 whether Tuttle should be executed or sentenced to life in prison. During his closing arguments in the trial, Tuttle's attorney, public defender Kenneth R. Brown, told Fishier that Tuttle's life would be of value to his wife and children even if he was imprisoned for life. He argued the prosecution had not demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that Tuttle should be executed. Brown said he was happy with Fishler's ruling. He said he will introduce an "arrest motion" on June 4 in Fishler's Third District Court. That motion, he said, will ask that the offense be reduced from first degree murder to second degree. He would not comment on whether new evidence would be introduced. Second degree murder carries a penalty of five years to a maximum of life imprisonment in Utah, Brown said. First degree murder carries a penalty of death or life in prison. During television and radio interviews inter-views this week, Tuttle said he was not happy even though the death penalty was not imposed. In those interviews, Tuttle held steadfastly to his courtroom testimony that he did not commit the murder. Assistant County Attorney Terry Christiansen, however, was pleased with the jury's verdict if not the sentencing. "It was an appropriate case for the death penalty but we respect the judge's ruling," he said. The burden of proof lies with the prosecution, Christiansen said, to show beyond a reasonable doubt that the death penalty should be imposed. Under Utah law it is difficult to have the death penalty imposed, he said. During the sentencing phase of the trial, Christiansen argued for the death penalty, calling Merrick's death "brutal" and "heinous." Merrick died in her parked car of numerous stab wounds. |