Overview
- The court held an evidentiary hearing on Friday that examined whether Utah County prosecutors violated Judge Tony Graf’s pretrial publicity order by discussing preliminary ATF ballistics findings with national media.
- Defense lawyers urged Graf to hold prosecutors in contempt and asked that the state be barred from seeking the death penalty as a sanction if the court finds misconduct.
- Prosecutors said their interviews were meant to correct misleading reports about an inconclusive ATF finding and stressed further testing of the bullet fragments remains pending.
- Graf declined to pause proceedings for the Utah Supreme Court’s review of his June 1 ruling allowing public media access and set his decisions on contempt and hearsay for June 22.
- The preliminary probable-cause hearing remains scheduled for July 6–10 and will be shaped by the upcoming rulings on media conduct, hearsay evidence, and ongoing ATF testing in a case that carries intense public attention because of the victim’s profile and potential capital exposure.