Plan would disinherit murderers

In December 2002, Lloyd Harry shot his wife in the back from 4 feet away, stuffed her body in the trunk of his car and drove from Duchesne County to Nevada.

Police say for the next few days, Harry toured several Nevada brothels with his wife's body in the trunk until, as Harry reported, the stench of the body got so bad he dumped her in the desert.

Ultimately Harry was arrested in Sparks, Nev., and almost three years later, on the eve of his trial, Harry pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

One would assume that someone who committed such a horrific crime against their spouse would not be able to come back and claim their spouse's estate. Wrong assumption.

Surviving family members of Rosemarie Harry were shocked to find out that under Utah law, Lloyd Harry still had a legal claim to his wife's estate, including property, bank accounts and even her retirement benefits.

For years Utah's civil probate laws have been out of sync with Utah's murder statute.

Now lawmakers and officials with the Utah Attorney General's Office want to close that loophole before any murder suspect gets wise to it. Current Utah law requires the surviving family members of a murder victim must take a convicted murderer to civil court, with a pretty steep burden of proof.

In fact, proving someone ineligible for inheritance is even more difficult than proving capital murder, said assistant Attorney General Mike Wims, who helped in Harry's prosecution.

"It's harder to prove the intent in civil court than in a death penalty case," Wims said. Although Harry has not claimed his wife's estate, his family remains concerned about the potential.

Wims said that in civil court, a victim's family must prove that a killer "intentionally" caused the death of the victim. Under the criminal code, a person can be convicted of capital murder for the lower standard of "knowingly" or "intentionally" causing a person's death.

The potential is huge. Such a loophole could be used by a convicted murderer to heap even more pain on a victim's family by dragging them through yet another trial.

"The statute does nothing to help surviving victims," said assistant Attorney General C.C. Horton. "It's like going through the murder trial all over again."