Man ordered to trial in woman's slaying

Several people heard him say he stabbed Molly Robbins last summer.

And Robbins' teenage daughter testified she saw him pinning her mother down on a bedroom floor while brandishing a knife the day her mother died.

"He said, 'I'm going to jail anyway,' and he told me to call 911 afterward," the visibly upset 15-year-old said from the witness stand.

Charles Richard Gunkel, 54, of Magna, is charged with aggravated murder, a first-degree felony that could become a capital case if prosecutors choose to make it one. He also is charged with aggravated burglary, a first-degree felony, and aggravated assault, a third-degree felony.

Third District Judge Deno Himonas Tuesday ordered Gunkel to stand trial for the death of Gunkel's longtime girlfriend. He will be arraigned Sept. 28, and prosecutors have 60 days after that to declare whether they intend to seek the death penalty if Gunkel is convicted.

The charges stem from an Aug. 8, 2008, incident in which police say Gunkel broke into a Magna house and confronted Robbins, 51, with whom he had an on-again, off-again romance for five years.

The couple had broken up about a month earlier and Robbins may have fallen in love with another man.

Robbins' daughter testified Gunkel came to the front door and wanted to see her mother, but neither would open the locked screen door. The girl went into the kitchen to resume working on a computer. The teen said she heard Gunkel demand, "Are you married?" to her mother, who answered no. She said he then asked, "Are you going to get married?" to which her mother replied, "Yes."

After that, the girl said she heard a suspicious sound and her mother cry out, "Chuck, stop!" and "Chuck, please don't do this!" along with "wrestling noises" and a loud thud. The girl raced to her mother's bedroom.

Inside, she said she saw her mother on the floor with Gunkel pinning her mother's arms down with his legs, one of his hands strangling Robbins and the other pointing a knife at her mother's shoulder.

"He told me to get in there and sit on the bed. He just kept choking my mom," the girl said in a soft, emotion-choked voice. "I kept yelling at him to stop and he said, 'Shut up,' or he would cut me, too. "

Gunkel at one point aimed the knife at the girl's legs, but she managed to get away to the home of a neighbor who called 911.

Other witnesses testified they heard Gunkel say he had stabbed Robbins and he spoke with a Salt Lake County sheriff's detective about Robbins' condition while being taken in for questioning.

Robbins, a popular second-grade teacher and mother of five, died from five stab wounds to the abdomen.

e-mail: lindat@desnews.com