Death-row inmate can withdraw guilty plea in 1993 murder case

SALT LAKE CITY — A death-row inmate will be allowed to withdraw his 1993 guilty plea to murdering a woman and leaving her body in the mountains east of Ogden, the state's high court ruled Tuesday.

Douglass Anderson Lovell's "personal experience with the criminal justice system" did not relieve the lower court of its duty to expressly state the man's right to the presumption of innocence and the right to a speedy, public jury trial, the Utah Supreme Court said in its unanimous decision.

Lovell pleaded guilty in 1993 to murdering Joyce Yost to prevent her from testifying against him in a rape and kidnapping case. The prosecutor at the time worked out a plea bargain that kept the death penalty off the table if Lovell would help police find Yost's remains. Despite repeated trips to the place he said he dumped the body, the remains were never found.

The Weber County Attorney's Office was already tracking down witnesses and evidence Tuesday in anticipation of a new trial.

"We intend to move forward," Weber County Attorney Dee Smith said. "If he withdraws his plea, we intend to try the case and move forward aggressively."

Smith said he did not believe the gap in time between the original proceedings and now would be a problem. "We feel pretty good about where we're at," he said.

— Aaron Falk