2nd man pleads guilty in jump from LDS Church Office Building

SALT LAKE CITY — The second of two men cited after BASE jumpers parachuted off the LDS Church Office Building in November entered a guilty plea in abeyance Monday to one infraction.

Hartman Rector, 28, and Marshall Miller, 32, were each cited for one count of criminal trespass and one count of disturbing the peace, both infractions. Rector pleaded Monday to one count of disturbing the peace in Salt Lake City Justice Court. The criminal trespassing infraction was dropped in exchange for the man's plea.

Rector was ordered to pay $300, was forbidden from returning to the LDS Church Office Building and was given six months of probation.

Miller pleaded guilty to the criminal trespassing infraction March 2 and received the same sentence.

No charges have been filed against the driver of a vehicle that took the two jumpers away after they landed in an empty parking lot across the street from the church's headquarters.

On Nov. 12, Rector and Miller jumped 420 feet from the 26th floor observation deck of the 28-story LDS Church Office Building, 50 E. North Temple, at 3:41 p.m.

Several witnesses described the jump and photographed the jumpers. In surveillance video released by the church, two men are seen wearing noticeably large backpacks in the elevator on their way to the upper floor. Employees within the building and passersby outside reported seeing the parachutists descend, then land in a parking lot north of the building and flee in a silver sport utility vehicle.

BASE is an acronym that stands for buildings, antennae, spans (bridges) and earth (cliffs), and jumping from such locations is believed by thrill-seekers to be the ultimate extreme sport. However, it is also one of the more dangerous thrills to seek, according to death statistics related to the sport.

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