Man charged in girl's death

FARMINGTON — Craig Mikesell began shaking as he watched Walter White make his first court appearance in connection with the death of Mikesell's 16-year-old daughter Samantha.

Then, as White was being led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, he exploded.

"You ain't even got the balls to look at the guy!" Mikesell shouted at the 38-year-old White. "Hey! You killed her!"

Mikesell was escorted out of the courtroom by 2nd District Court bailiffs on Monday. Speaking to reporters as his wife tugged at his arm, he put the blame for Samantha Mikesell's death squarely on White's shoulders.

"Of course he killed her!" Mikesell shouted. "Take her up there, feed her some pills, you know? Give her booze, have his way with her. Then drag the body away 65 feet."

Samantha Mikesell's body was found Thursday after police and search dogs scoured a portion of Mueller Park Canyon for the missing girl.

White has been charged with second-degree felony child abuse. He also has been charged with unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, unlawful sexual conduct with a 16-year-old, dealing in harmful materials to a minor, obstruction of justice and desecration of a body, all third-degree felonies.

Deputy Davis County Attorney Bill McGuire confirmed evidence of a sexual relationship between the two.

"The allegations are that it started approximately October 2005 and continued up until the time of her death," he said Monday.

Bountiful police detectives spent the weekend questioning friends and associates of Mikesell, who suggested the pair were more than "just friends," as White had claimed.

"We're getting more friends who said 'she told me this and that,'" Bountiful Police Lt. Steve Gray said Monday.

In police interviews, White eventually acknowledged a sexual relationship with Samantha Mikesell, authorities said. Prosecutors told the Deseret Morning News that White also showed the girl pornography on his computer.

White was convicted in 1996 of lewdness involving a child and placed on Utah's sex offender registry. McGuire said prosecutors have evidence White also struck up friendships with other underage girls, but do not believe those contacts reached the level of his relationship with Mikesell.