A 15-year-old Utah boy is accused of killing an elderly man and severely injuring the man’s wife and son in a violent home invasion last year, then boasting about the crime to friends.
Prosecutors on Thursday filed criminal charges in connection with the Sept. 13 incident, accusing the boy of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary and two counts of attempted aggravated murder, KSL-TV reports.
Court documents obtained by the news outlet provide the following timeline:
The boy allegedly forced his way into a home in Vernal, Utah, around 3 a.m. through a window.
The elderly man, 84-year-old Cal Dee Reynolds, later awoke and went to the bathroom. When he saw the boy, he “verbally confronted him,” at which point the boy is accused of stabbing Reynolds several times, according to police.
Reynolds called out for help, waking up his adult son who went to assist his father.
“Before help could be rendered, the defendant blindsided the second victim, attacking him with a knife and stabbing him multiple times,” the documents claim.
As both victims were immobilized from their injuries, the boy went into a bedroom and found Reynolds’ wife, who he pulled from the bed and allegedly stabbed multiple times, records state.
Emergency crews flew Reynolds to a hospital in the Salt Lake City area and he later died from the injuries in November.
The wife and son were also hospitalized; they survived but had “extensive injuries,” according to authorities.
The defendant, who has not been publicly named by news outlets because he is a minor, allegedly bragged to friends that he had stabbed “the old man,” according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The boy is accused of burglarizing another home, this time with those friends. Prosecutors allege that in late September, the boys knocked on the door of a residence and then barged inside when a female resident answered.
The 15-year-old reportedly helped hold two females down while the group demanded money; he also allegedly injured a woman in the home by dragging her down steps. The women later escaped and screamed for help, prompting a neighbor to call police.
The boy’s case is in juvenile court, but prosecutors could seek to move it to adult court, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. If the boy remains in juvenile court, he faces a maximum sentence in a secure facility until he is 21 years old. He could face life in prison in adult court.
Vernal is about 175 miles east of Salt Lake City.