A final farewell today for Destiny

Funeral services will be held this morning for 5-year-old Destiny Norton, the angel-faced little girl with a smile full of silver teeth who was found smothered to death two doors from her home.

The funeral begins at 11 a.m. in the family's LDS church meetinghouse at 700 South and 500 East. Destiny's cemetery burial will be closed to the public.

After the funeral, family members said, a tree will be planted outside their LDS church in her memory.

"There's a quote in the Bible about the 'spirit sits in the palm of my hand,' " Destiny's uncle, Peter Brooks said Friday. "A tree's going to be planted in the middle of the oaks in the name of Destiny."

As Destiny's family prepares to say goodbye to her, the parents of accused killer Craig Roger Gregerson will meet with him this morning in the Salt Lake County Jail.

Brooks said he contacted the Gregersons on Friday, urging a family representative to talk to him and spare Destiny's family the pain of court proceedings.

"I don't hold them accountable for their son's actions," he told the Deseret Morning News. "I just wish they'd plead with their son to stand up and be a man and admit his guilt and take his punishment like a man — not to drag the family through every detail of what he did."

Gregerson, 20, made his first appearance in Salt Lake's 3rd District Court Friday via video hookup from the Salt Lake County Jail, where he is being held on $5 million bail. Gregerson, clad in a yellow jail jumpsuit, stared straight into the camera. He appeared pale and stone-faced.

Legal defender Michael Peterson stood by his side at the jail, while defense attorneys Steven Shapiro and Heidi Buchi served as Gregerson's lawyers in the courtroom.

Third District Judge Robert Hilder formally read the two charges against Gregerson: aggravated murder, a capital offense, and first-degree felony child kidnapping.

He then asked about finances and legal representation.

"Do you have the income to retain your own lawyer, sir?" the judge asked.

"No," Gregerson replied.

"What is your income or assets?"

"None whatsoever."

Hilder formally appointed public defenders to represent Gregerson. The judge, on an emergency basis, had already temporarily appointed a lawyer for Gregerson Monday night. Gregerson was arrested Monday.

After an Aug. 7 scheduling conference was set in the case, Gregerson was led away from the camera.