UTAH STATE PRISON Bret Lee Etterlein is 62 years old. He has spent two-thirds of his life in prison.
At one point, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole voted that Etterlein should serve out the rest of his life sentence in the Utah State Prison for murdering his mother.
But after being in prison since 1981, and not having a single disciplinary write-up in the past 24 years, the board recently agreed to give him another hearing to reconsider whether he should be paroled. I m 62 years old, I m not a child. I ve grown up, I m a man now. I m not a person who has to be watched over his shoulder, you know, to do right to do what s correct. I do that myself. And that s what I m supposed to do, he told the board in a recording of his hearing on April 27.
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Public health orders in Utah related to the COVID-19 pandemic have now ended. State health officials announced Thursday, Utah has met the criteria laid out in the Legislature’s “Pandemic Endgame” bill. This story and more in Tuesday evening s news brief.
Tuesday evening, May 4, 2021
Northern Utah
Reimagining Salt Lake City Public Lands As Equitable Resources
Salt Lake City is taking on a master planning process to figure out what the future of its public lands will look like over the next two decades. It’s called “Reimagine Nature,” and it includes the way residents use and access parks, trails, forests and even golf courses. The city is also trying to make natural spaces more equitable for residents, so staff has done targeted outreach to underrepresented communities. They’ve found that people of color and residents on the west side of the city want to feel more connected to parks in their communities.
SOUTH OGDEN An audio recording that captured a killer s unwitting confession and broke open a murder case after years of inaction is coming to light in the latest episode of the KSL podcast Cold.
The recording was the pivotal piece of evidence that confirmed what police had believed for years, but which they d been unable to prove: Douglas Lovell had murdered Joyce Yost to prevent her from testifying against him in a 1985 sexual assault case. I committed a first-degree felony to cover another felony. It s the death penalty, Lovell said on the recording.
Only a few snippets of the recording have previously been shared publicly, presented as evidence in court to establish Lovell s guilt. Those clips clearly showed Lovell understood the gravity of what he d done, as well as the consequences if he were to be convicted.
An Idaho sex offender who pleaded guilty to exchanging sexually explicit messages with a minor in Cache County was sentenced to prison on Monday.
Bradley Drew Sorenson, 56, appeared in 1st District Court from the Cache County Jail after pleading guilty to three counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of second-degree enticing a minor by internet or text and third-degree dealing in materials harmful to a minor.
During his appearance, Sorenson was ordered to serve concurrent sentences of 1-15 years in the Utah State Prison.
Prior to sentencing, defense attorney Joseph Saxton told the court Sorensonâs relationship with the victim âstarted innocently enoughâ as a nonsexual friendship, but eventually became inappropriate. Sorenson also made statements to the court about his initial intentions to help the victim.