Teen boys acquitted by judge

WEST JORDAN — Judge Christine Decker strongly rebuked two teenage boys Thursday before acquitting them of felony charges of conspiring to kidnap and torture people.

"What you did was horrible," Decker told the two boys, ages 14 and 15.

As relatives wept with relief, the judge ordered the 15-year-old into state custody — at his request — so he could get mental-health counseling. He previously had been undergoing therapy, but it was stopped after problems arose with his family's health insurance.

Decker released the 14-year-old to his parents, but urged them to pursue psychological counseling for their son.

The teens were charged with three counts of conspiring to commit aggravated kidnapping, a second-degree felony.

The charges emerged after the mother and stepfather of the older boy eavesdropped on a phone conversation between the teens in which they discussed ways to lure people to remote locations and torture them in ways similar to depictions in the "Saw" movies. Any who survived would have been those who paid for some perceived flaws, would have "proved" themselves to the two boys and who the boys ultimately would have decided had become better people.

"Who are the two of you to sit in judgement of others?" the judge demanded. "You two are the ones who are mixed up."

Decker suggested it was cruel that the teens had brought a certain amount of public attention to a school resource officer, as well as forcing young and sensitive teenage girls to testify in court. The three were named in the boys' conversation, and prosecutors suspected they were the intended victims.

As for the criminal charges, the judge said that prosecutors had not met the high legal standard of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that a conspiracy had been hatched to kidnap anyone with the intention of hurting or terrorizing them.

Decker said her review of the evidence showed many equivocations where the boys had discussed doing something wrong, but then insisted they could never go through with it.

Prosecutors had argued that the state did not need to show anything had actually happened to prove a conspiracy existed. However, defense attorneys for both boys told the court that the phone conversation was nothing more than "fanciful talk" between two boys who had watched the psycho-thriller movie "Saw."

The mother of the 15-year-old had secretly listened to much the phone conversation on March 7, with the stepfather hearing portions of it, and both adults were horrified to hear the boys discussing kidnapping, torture and murder so casually. The adults contacted Murray police that night.