11-year-old slaying coming to trial

Scott Mosier keeps a picture by his coffee maker of his son Chris, who was stabbed to death almost 11 years ago.

"It's so I can say good morning to him," Mosier said. "I think of him every day."

On Dec. 30, 1993, Chris was baby-sitting a 2-month-old infant at the Mosier home. The teenager was found dead on the floor by his mother, Sylvia, when she returned home from work.

Chris, who was 14 when he died, had been stabbed repeatedly in the back, abdomen, arms, legs and chest, including eight wounds to the heart, according to an autopsy.

The man investigated for the crime in 1993 was not charged at that time, but new, improved DNA testing prompted prosecutors to file a first-degree felony murder charge against Terry Louis Johnson in 2002.

Now after six previous trial dates have been canceled, the case appears headed for a jury on June 22.

"We're preparing as if the trial's going to go — I know of no reason why it shouldn't go," prosecutor Fred Burmester said.

For Scott Mosier, the long wait has been "horrible."

"Every year at the anniversary of Christopher's death, I light a candle and put it in the window," he said. "I cope by thinking that justice will be done — it will never bring back Chris, but that chapter will be closed."

Mosier, a software engineer who lived in Utah for 10 years and has since moved to Seattle, praised police and prosecutors for never giving up on the case. He also is confident a jury here will do a good job.

"The best thing we could hope for is that the trial is fair on both sides and the jury comes back with a correct verdict," he said.

Johnson, 42, was extradited from Kansas City, Mo., after he was charged. He has maintained his innocence all along. His attorneys, Robert Heineman and John O'Connell Jr., were unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Chris Mosier had been baby-sitting Johnson's infant son in Taylorsville on Dec. 30, 1993, and Chris' mother had been calling regularly to check on him and the baby, according to documents filed in 3rd District Court.

She last spoke with Chris at 7:15 p.m., but when she called a half-hour later, there was no answer, and when she returned home at 9:15 p.m., Chris was dead, court documents state.