Death scene was surreal, witness says

FARMINGTON -- When Peter Mauerhan returned to Paul Allen's North Salt Lake condo after a boating trip the night of Aug. 28, 1996, he thought he'd stumbled into a Halloween prank.

After entering the condo, Mauerhan saw his friend's wife, Jill Allen, lying face down in the hallway, her pants pulled down and the back of her head covered with blood."It seemed surreal," Mauerhan testified Friday morning in 2nd District Court. "When I walked in, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing."

Mauerhan was one of four witnesses who testified Friday in the trial of Paul Allen, who is charged with capital murder as well as conspiracy and criminal solicitation, both first-degree felonies. Prosecutors say Allen, 30, arranged his wife's murder to cash in a $250,000 life insurance policy.

George Anthony Taylor has admitted to killing Jill Allen, and Joseph Sergious Wright has admitted to acting as the middleman.

Allen claims both men planned the killing themselves, then framed him to escape capital punishment. Defense attorneys have attacked the credibility of Taylor and Wright.

After Wright's wife told jurors Friday how she helped her husband plan Jill Allen's death, and even brought her children along during some of the planning, three other witnesses told of their separate encounters with Paul Allen the day of the murder.

Angie Hoskins, who went to cosmetology school with Jill Allen for one year, said Paul Allen brought his wife flowers and visited her at the school that day. Allen had never done so before, Hoskins said.

Julie Thomas, who said Paul Allen serviced her company's stock of cellular phones, testified Allen was unusually quiet and short-tempered when she saw him that day.

Defense attorneys claimed such actions were coincidental and warned jurors when the trial began that prosecutors would try to put such spins on "even the most loving" actions by their client.

Mauerhan testified Paul Allen invited him and Jessie Strassburg to go boating and water-skiing at Echo Lake the day Jill Allen was murdered.

Mauerhan said that after dropping off the boat at his parents' home that night, Allen took a call on his cell phone. "He picked up, was very short and hung up," Mauerhan said.

Prosecutors have claimed that call was from Wright, telling Allen the murder had been accomplished.