Man will stand trial in prostitute slayings

OGDEN — A man accused of gunning down two women here has been ordered to stand trial on charges of aggravated murder.

Weber County prosecutors now have until March 11 to decide if they will seek the death penalty against Jacob Daniel Ethridge, 32, for the July 2008 murders of Rosanna Cruz and Teresa Tingey.

During Tuesday's preliminary hearing in 2nd District Court, gruesome details of the women's slayings were revealed as an Ogden police detective matter-of-factly repeated Ethridge's confession to investigators. Family and friends of both Ethridge and the victims were in court, some showing visible emotion as the details were recited.

"His first response was, 'I shot two girls,' " detective Tim Scott recalled of his first encounter with Ethridge, shortly after the man walked into the Ogden Police Department and confessed to the killings.

Describing a "calm, friendly" interview about the killings, Scott testified that after getting into an argument with his girlfriend, Ethridge wound up on Adams Avenue where he encountered Cruz, who was working as a prostitute. She led him up to an abandoned apartment where he sought to have her perform a sexual act, Scott said.

"She said she couldn't because she had sores in her mouth," Scott said. "He was repulsed by that."

Scott testified that Ethridge then pulled out a gun and shot Cruz, 25, in the neck. As she lay there dying, Scott said Ethridge told them he picked up the shell casing and left.

He wandered over to a nearby bar, then turned back toward his car when Ethridge heard a voice.

"Hey Mike!" Teresa Tingey called out to him, Scott testified.

The two struck up a conversation and, police said, Tingey led him back behind an apartment building where she performed a sexual act. Tingey, 45, was "executed," prosecutor Gary Heward told the judge.

"He picked up what he thought was the casing," Heward said. "He picked up the bullet that passed through her head."

As he left the scene, Ethridge allegedly told police he sent text messages to his girlfriend and his parents. It was his father who took him to the police department and told him to turn himself in.

Ethridge told investigators he had fantasized about killing someone, Scott testified, "walking down the street and shooting someone as they walk past me."