State of Utah, Plaintiff and Appellee v. Fred W. Standiford, Defendant and Appellant

Summary

The Utah Supreme Court affirmed Standiford's second-degree murder conviction for fatally stabbing Hisae Wood. It held that the jury instructions adequately presented the statutory mental states and defenses, although the depraved-indifference instruction should have more precisely defined the required grave risk and callousness; any error was harmless. The court also rejected challenges concerning unanimity, lesser-included offenses, intoxication, self-defense, the prosecution expert's testimony, and sufficiency of the evidence.