Utahn pleads guilty in death of woman found on desert hillside in 2018

Juab County Jail

Cody Young left a message for Jan Pearson Jenkins’ family saying he was tired of her and left her behind

SALT LAKE CITY — A Nephi man has pleaded guilty in the death of a woman who succumbed to hypothermia in 2018 after he left her in remote, rainy Juab County with no phone, food or coat.

Cody Alexander Young, 43, admitted Tuesday in Nephi’s 4th District Court to manslaughter, a second-degree felony charge, in the death of 64-year-old Jan Pearson Jenkins.

Jenkins’ unclothed body was found Oct. 13, 2018, on a hillside in Juab County near the ghost town of Silver City, with shorts and a T-shirt nearby.

In exchange for Young’s guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to recommend he serve a year in jail, followed by probation, when he is sentenced April 21. A second count of evidence tampering, a class A misdemeanor, was dismissed, court records show.

Young and Jenkins had been camping in his van near the ghost town for several days in rainy, windy weather when he called her family Oct. 5, 2018, and left a message saying he was “tired of her” and left her “out here,” court documents say.

Two days later, Young sent Jenkins a message on her phone saying “he couldn’t believe he left her there with nothing and didn’t know if she was OK,” but did not tell anyone where she was until four days after leaving her, court records state.

Police have said the two were in “somewhat” of a relationship and Young told them they had argued over two days.

He later told police the two had used methamphetamine, a substance that contributed to Jenkins’ death, an autopsy revealed. She also was found to have minor blunt trauma to her head, torso and limbs, according to a medical examiner’s report.

After his initial arrest, Young was charged and later pleaded guilty to drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and unlawful possession of a dangerous weapon.

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/338bW9c