From Deseret News archives:
Judge refuses to toss Hauck evidence
Police did nothing wrong when they entered condo
"We would have definitely had to let him go," deputy Davis County attorney Steve Major told the Deseret Morning News. "This has always been a very unique issue."
A judge in Farmington's 2nd District Court on Wednesday refused to toss evidence — including the body of Hauck's frozen mother — concluding that Bountiful police did nothing wrong when they entered Laura Hauck's townhouse condo.
"There was a reasonable basis to believe that if Laura was in need of assistance, she was likely still inside her house," Judge Darwin Hansen wrote. "As a result, the police were justified in using the emergency aid doctrine to bypass the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment."
Hauck's defense attorney claims that the initial entry into the home was improper.
"I stand by the view that any time officers engage in a search, there has to be probable cause of something," Todd Utzinger said Wednesday.
Utzinger said he has not yet decided if he will appeal the judge's ruling to the Utah Supreme Court.
Hauck is charged with first-degree felony murder, accused of shooting his mother in the head, slitting her throat and then stuffing her body inside a basement freezer. On Aug. 7, 2006, Bountiful police were called to Laura Hauck's condo after extended family members hadn't heard from her in several days.
Officers knocked on the doors with no response. Members of Hauck's family then asked the police to go into the home through an open window on the second floor.
Inside the basement, police found a pool of blood. A trail of blood led to a freezer, where Laura Hauck's body was found.
"No police officer is going to enter a home, see blood and then back out and say 'Uh oh, I shouldn't be here,"' Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings said Wednesday.
A search warrant was signed by a judge that afternoon.
Jeremy Hauck, 18, was arrested days later at a motel in Montana. However, the judge rejected a prosecution claim that the young man had "abandoned" the property. The judge did side with police in saying they believed there could have been a medical emergency.
"Specifically, that Laura could be inside the house in an unconscious state, semiconscious state, injured or dead," Hansen wrote.
On Wednesday, Utzinger met with Jeremy Hauck in the Davis County Jail and broke the news to him. Hauck remains in jail with bail set at $300,000.
"He took it in stride," Utzinger said.
The defense attorney said he plans to have a mental evaluation conducted on his client but did not indicate if he would be raising mental competency issues.
"It's just some input for my own knowledge of the case and information about Jeremy," he said. "Given the magnitude of the case, I think it's a reasonable thing to do."
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
