Griffin gets life without parole for '84 murder

BRIGHAM CITY — Hands shackled in front of him and dressed in a jailhouse jump suit, Glenn Howard Griffin listened Wednesday afternoon as a judge officially sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Griffin, 51, was convicted of capital homicide for the 1984 cold case murder of Bradley Newell Perry. During sentencing proceedings in November, the jury also had the option of sentencing Griffin to death or life with parole.

On Wednesday, 1st District Judge Ben Hadfield signed the order in court, making Griffin's life sentence official.

The hearing lasted only a few minutes. Members of both Perry's and Griffin's families were present for the sentencing. Griffin did not address the court.

Outside the courtroom, Perry's mother, father and two sisters said they weren't expecting Griffin to say anything. To this day, they say they have not heard any apology from him.

"We have never seen him show any remorse," said Perry's father, Newell Perry.

"None of us believe he is remorseful. He has never shown it at all to us," said Perry's sister, Valerie Perry Odenthal.

Brad Perry had just turned 22 when he was killed while working at the family gas station in 1984. The case went cold for many years until advances in forensic technology were able to link two people to the crime. Griffin's trial was the first.

While the Perrys feel Griffin has shown no remorse, they have nothing but sympathy for his family and his foster mother, Arlene Pyle, who adopted Glenn when he was 3 months old.

Over the past two decades, the Perrys and Pyle have become close. Outside the courtroom following Wednesday's sentencing, Claudia Perry, Brad's mother, and Pyle hugged as Perry tried to console her. Pyle told Perry she had a present she wanted to give her in private after the media had gone.

Pyle wiped away tears inside the courtroom and cried again in the hallway. She did not want to comment about her son's sentencing. Rather, she tearfully thanked the Perrys.

"I appreciate the way the Perrys have treated us. Thy Perry family has been very good to us," she said. "The Perrys have been extremely good to me ... "