Utah Supreme Court upholds dismissal of petition from convicted killer

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of a post-conviction relief petition filed by a man convicted of killing his child's babysitter.

A jury found Terry Louis Johnson guilty of first-degree felony murder in 2004 and sentenced him to five years to life in prison for the 1993 slaying of 14-year-old Christopher Mosier.

The boy had been watching Johnson's 2-month-old child at his own home the day he was killed. Mosier's mother returned home from work to find her son dead, his body covered with more than 20 stab wounds.

The case would go unsolved until 2002, when DNA evidence led police to Johnson who had since moved to Missouri. Johnson told police in 1993 that Mosier was alive and well when he came to pick up his infant son.

The night of the slaying, police confiscated the baby's clothing and two blankets because there was blood on them, charges state. Years later, DNA matched the blood on the clothing and blankets to Mosier to a "scientific certainty," charges state.

After his conviction, Johnson's attorneys requested a new trial alleging ineffective assistance by trial attorneys, the Supreme Court ruling states. When that motion was denied, Johnson appealed the decision to the Utah Court of Appeals, which upheld the conviction.

After his petition for a judicial review by the Utah Supreme Court was denied, Johnson filed the petition for post-conviction relief in 3rd District Court. The petition was dismissed and the man appealed the decision to the state's high court.

"Because Mr. Johnson’s petition for post-conviction relief relied upon claims that were either previously adjudicated, frivolous, or procedurally barred, his petition was improper," Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Christine Durham wrote. "We therefore affirm the district court’s dismissal of Mr. Johnson’s petition."

— Emiley Morgan

Twitter: DNewsCrimeTeam