Utah driver faces 3 murder charges after disabled men were found dead of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning

A month before three men were found dead inside his van, a driver who worked with people with disabilities had been reprimanded for leaving vulnerable clients alone.

On Friday, Isaiah Pulu was charged with three counts of murder in the men’s deaths, which authorities suspect were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Charging documents allege that Pulu picked up the three men — who have been identified as Colton Moser, 25; Mosa’ati Moa, 22; and Tim Jones, 39 — from their group homes the morning of Feb. 6, then drove them to his West Valley City apartment.

Pulu, 25, is accused in charging records of leaving the men inside the running van parked in a tight garage for more than four hours while he ate and watched television in his apartment.

His defense attorney, Joshua Baron, said Friday that “this was a tragic accident” and that “my heart goes out to the victims and their families,” but Baron did not comment further because he hasn’t received evidence from prosecutors yet.

Pulu was working for Safe and Sound Services, a business that transports and provides support for people with disabilities, state records show. The CEO of the business told investigators that Pulu was the men’s caretaker, according to charges, and that day, he was supposed to take them out into the community — like to the park or the mall.

Salt Lake County prosecutors don’t accuse Pulu of intentionally killing the three men; rather, they allege in charging documents that Pulu showed a “depraved indifference to human life” and engaged in conduct that created a “grave risk of death,” which led to their deaths.

On Friday, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill pointed to Pulu’s previous discipline history at his company, when Safe and Sound Services had reprimanded him a month prior for “client abandonment” because he left three clients alone for about a half-hour while they were waiting for a driver. Gill said this previous discipline shows that Pulu knew what his responsibility was and the duty he owed to Moser, Moa and Jones.

“It helps us establish he was aware of the vulnerability,” he said, “and he was warned about that.”

Gill would not say whether those three clients who Pulu previously left alone were the same men who died on Feb. 6. Safe and Sound Services did not respond to a request for comment earlier this week.

The district attorney added that Pulu’s actions also endangered his neighbors, saying that the apartments above the garage had to be evacuated last Friday after their CO2 alarms started going off. Fire crews used monitors that showed that carbon monoxide levels in those apartments had gotten as high as 600 parts per million — which Gill said had the potential to be deadly.

Prosecutors allege in court records that Pulu drove the three men — who were “dependent on caretakers for their daily needs” — to his West Valley City apartment shortly after picking them up because one of them was “being rowdy.”

He told investigators that he was trained to use “isolation as de-escalation,” so he parked the van in his garage, and told one of the men to stay in the car with the others and that he’d return later.

Pulu told authorities he left the van running with the windows down and garage door open, and that he took the van keys and the garage door opener with him.

He also said there was a button on the wall to open and close the garage door, charging documents state. It’s not clear who closed the garage door, but prosecutors say it was closed when Pulu went back to his van hours later and found Moser, Moa and Jones unresponsive.

“I just wanted to get some food and watch my show,” Pulu told investigators, according to charging documents. Prosecutors allege that the man also told investigators that he was trying to gain weight, and “that he needed to eat and wanted to watch anime.”

Pulu also told investigators that he had brought clients to his home before and had left them in the van prior to last Friday, according to charging records.

Moser, Moa and Jones were declared dead at the scene from what police then said appeared to be accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

In charging records, prosecutors say that Ring doorbell surveillance footage showed Pulu entering his apartment about an hour earlier than what he initially told police — at 9:09 a.m., less than ten minutes after he picked up the three men. They say he didn’t leave his apartment until about 1:30 p.m. He didn’t call 911 until 20 minutes after that, and charging records say he told prosecutors he called for help after he called his mother “in a panic,” and also took a call from work.

Pulu, who has been in the Salt Lake County jail since he was arrested last week, is expected to make his first court appearance next Thursday.

Safe and Sound Services has been licensed for nearly three years, and is approved to serve a maximum of 62 clients. In the handful of inspections that licensers have done since the company opened, they haven’t found any major issues.

It is licensed as a day program, which generally means the company helps provide daytime supervision and support for those who are disabled.

The state Department of Health and Human Services took emergency action against Safe and Sound Services on Feb. 6, prohibiting the company from taking new clients for the next 30 days and ordering that all staff must be retrained on safe practices regarding transportation and supervision of clients. It must also comply with increased monitoring and a licensing investigation.

The department said in an emergency notice that it was taking these measures to “protect the immediate health and safety of remaining clients” after the three men died.