Death on the line

One man was charged with stabbing his father to death on Father's Day. Another was arrested in the fatal shooting of his wife in an LDS church parking lot. A third is accused of killing his infant daughter by shaking and throwing her.

Because of the heinous and heartbreaking nature of the crimes, prosecutors have charged three Utah County men, Michael Kirsch, David Ragsdale and Victor Gardea, with aggravated murder. Each could face the death penalty.

In the last nine months, prosecutors have filed three aggravated-murder cases in 4th District — the most ever at one time — and the county is beginning to feel the financial crunch.

"With more capital cases filed, they're costing the county a ton of money," said public defender Gunda Jarvis, who just finished a capital case a few weeks ago that wasn't included in the count of three.

An aggravated murder case is potentially punishable by death and thus dwarfs the average criminal case in the amount of time and money required.

It's so expensive that the Utah County Commission recently approved spending $150,000 for the Utah County Public Defenders Association to assist with the cases of Kirsch and Ragsdale. The money does not go toward attorneys' fees.

Gardea's case is so new, the association is drafting a third request for additional money.

"We live in this great country that affords everybody the right to counsel, a right to due process," said Utah County Commissioner Gary Anderson, a former criminal defense attorney. "Justice is expensive. It's not just the defendant we're defending, we're defending our system, our system of laws, our way of life."

A capital case

The charge of aggravated murder is the only crime in Utah punishable by death.

For a murder to rise to that level, prosecutors must prove aggravating factors — such as killing several people, a child or a police officer, or that the murder was preceded by another crime like rape, sexual abuse of a child or robbery.

In June 2007, prosecutors charged Jason Putnam with aggravated murder, alleging that during the course of severe child abuse, Putnam caused the death of his 20-month-old son, Jordan.

Because Putnam had no money to hire an attorney, the judge declared him indigent and appointed a public defender. Public defenders also represented the four aggravated murder cases before Putnam and all three cases filed this year.

With each aggravated murder case the Public Defenders Association receives, it asks the county for financial help.

And since 2001, the county has authorized an average of $75,000 in sequential payments for each qualifying case.