Man faces trial in ex-wife's death

Roger Martin MacGuire, the man charged with killing his ex-wife and her unborn baby, will go on trial in September.

A jury trial has been set to begin Sept. 14 and run through Oct. 1 in Farmington, presided over by 2nd District Judge Michael Allphin.

MacGuire, 50, originally was charged with two counts of aggravated murder, which carries the death penalty if a person is convicted. The charges stemmed from the January 2001 shooting death of Susan MacGuire, who was pregnant by her fiance. The fetus was estimated to be between 13-15 weeks old.

A witness at Roger MacGuire's May 2001 preliminary hearing testified that a "shaken" MacGuire confessed that he had killed Susan MacGuire because MacGuire thought he and his ex-wife were going to reconcile, and Roger MacGuire was stunned to learn that she was pregnant by her boyfriend and was engaged to marry that man.

A Layton police detective testified at that hearing that MacGuire said he had simply wanted to scare his ex-wife and the gun "just went off."

Prosecutors have since announced they will not seek the death penalty due to Roger MacGuire's lack of prior criminal history.

Roger MacGuire's lawyers previously argued that he should not be tried for murdering the fetus because Utah law did not define who is protected by the phrase "unborn child."

Prosecutors, on the other hand, insisted that two lives had been taken during the shooting that occurred at the office where Susan MacGuire worked. She had been hit by four gunshots, including one to the back of the head, one to her left forearm and two to her abdomen, according to the sworn testimony of a medical examiner.

The Utah Supreme Court in January ruled in a 4-to-1 decision that the intent of lawmakers who enacted Utah's 1983 criminal homicide statute was to include fetuses from conception to birth. "The common-sense meaning of the term 'unborn child' is a human being at any stage of development in utero, because once fertilization occurs, an unborn child is an 'individual human life' that is 'in existence and developing prior to birth,' " the ruling said.

Supreme Court Justice Christine Durham, while agreeing with the contention that the state's homicide law covers fetuses in all stages, disagreed with the other justices about the capital charge against MacGuire.

In a dissenting opinion, Durham wrote that the law says a fetus cannot qualify as a person with complete constitutional rights.

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E-mail: lindat@desnews.com