A 15-year-old accused of stabbing a couple in their Taylorsville home last month in what police described as a random attack is now facing charges of attempted aggravated murder, according to charging documents obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune this week that outline how the child allegedly ended up at the couple’s home.
The teen, who was charged in juvenile court on Sept. 28, told investigators that he woke up around 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 20 with an urge to hurt someone. According to the charging documents, the 15-year-old was “shaking, shivering, and freaking out” and “got ready like he was going to go to school.”
He then grabbed his father’s pocket knife and a larger knife, left his home dressed in all black and began walking up to homes, trying to get in, the charging documents state. At one point, someone saw him and yelled at him and the teen ran away and buried the larger knife.
He happened upon the Taylorsville couple’s home near 3400 South and 4800 West around 4 a.m. He checked the door, found it was unlocked and walked in, the documents state.
Once inside, the teen told police he first searched the home for a bit, finding $20 and car keys in a bathroom before heading toward the main bedroom where the couple, a husband and wife, were sleeping.
That’s when the husband woke up and asked the teen “What are you doing?” The teen pulled out his pocketknife and began to “shank” the man, he told police. The husband said the teen yelled, “Die,” before calling him expletives as the child stabbed him, the charging documents state.
As her husband was attacked, the woman ran from the bedroom, making it outside to a neighbor’s house. The teen followed and attacked her on the neighbor’s porch, the documents state.
The child ran away when the neighbor, who heard screaming and someone pounding on her door, got near and yelled for him to “leave her alone.”
Police soon arrived and found both victims bleeding from multiple stab wounds. Charging documents indicate the woman suffered 24 stab wounds; she had to have surgery to repair damage to her arm and suffered internal wounds, including a collapsed lung and lacerations to her spleen.
Her husband suffered 11 stab wounds, including in the neck, chest and shoulder. His lung also collapsed, the documents state. Both survived the attack. A child who lives in the home was not injured, police have said, and “apparently had no contact or encounter” with the teen charged.
Officers arrested the 15-year-old that morning at a nearby construction site, police have said. Charging documents allege that he told an arresting officer, “I just got caught,” and, “I was trying to hurt someone and run away.” Police said he had blood on his clothes, as well as the $20 and car keys.
He told police, according to the charging documents, that he realized after seeing officers that he’d done something wrong and should turn himself in. He told police he didn’t know the couple, and that during the confrontation, he felt like “he just had to kill them.”
The teen has been charged with two felony counts of attempted aggravated murder, in addition to two felony counts of aggravated burglary and a misdemeanor count of possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor.
The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not identify minor defendants charged in crimes unless they are being prosecuted as adults.
