Utah
Utahn who ran over and killed wife at Salt Lake airport seeks parole
SALT LAKE CITY — Shawn Christopher Sturgeon says he doesn’t understand, or really even remember, how an argument over car keys escalated to become the “worst mistake of my life.”
“I wish I could explain the choices that I made,” he said Tuesday. “I have no idea why we were so angry at each other that day.”
That argument began as Sturgeon and his wife, 29-year-old Charlotte Marie Dalton-Sturgeon, got off their flight at the Salt Lake City International Airport on April 4, 2022, and continued as they walked through the airport and to their car in the parking garage.
Just as Shawn Sturgeon started the vehicle, Charlotte Sturgeon got out to check on their young daughter in the back seat. But Shawn Sturgeon continued to put the vehicle in reverse and ran over his wife. She died a short time later at a local hospital.
Shawn Sturgeon pleaded guilty to automobile homicide while driving under the influence, a second-degree felony, and domestic violence in the presence of a child, a third-degree felony. He was sentenced to one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison for the homicide charge and a term of zero to five years in prison for the domestic violence charge, and the sentences were ordered to be served consecutively — essentially making it a sentence of one to 20 years.
On Tuesday, Sturgeon went before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole for the first time. Board member Dan Bokovoy, who conducted the hearing, noted that both victim representatives and supporters of Sturgeon were in the audience.
As the hearing began, Sturgeon recalled how “falling in love with her was probably one of the easiest things I’ve ever done” when talking about his wife of 11 years. “She was my best friend in the whole world.”
The couple had two daughters together.
Shawn Sturgeon says he believes they had a great relationship. But he admitted that on weekends and evenings, they would spend most of their time drinking. Denise Nimtz also told the board on Tuesday that her son-in-law drank alcohol and smoked pot daily and had driven while intoxicated in the past.
On April 4, 2022, Sturgeon says he and his wife were returning from a family wedding in Texas and were sitting in first class and started drinking as soon as they got on the plane. He said the plane ride was normal, until they were about to land, and the couple couldn’t remember where their car keys were.
Sturgeon admitted to the board on Tuesday that he was already an alcoholic by that point in his life, but he reached a “different level” of intoxication that day.
“We weren’t even coherent, I think,” he told the board, while adding he doesn’t remember getting off the plane, walking through the airport or arguing with his wife along the way. “I feel like I was out of control.”
At one point during the hearing, when Sturgeon again said, “I have no idea why we were so mad at each other over something as simple as keys,” Bokovoy reminded him, “It’s you we’re talking about today,” and that Sturgeon shouldn’t be saying “we” when recounting his actions that day.
When recalling what happened in the parking garage, Sturgeon said he “angrily” and “aggressively” put his car in reverse.
“I felt her go underneath the vehicle,” he said. “I instantly knew I had just made the worst mistake ever.”
But as the board pointed out, according to witnesses, Sturgeon’s reaction at that point was extremely callous as he got out of the car and continued screaming at his wife.
“There could have been so many different ways I could have handled that,” he said.”I wish I had a better answer. I don’t know what was going through my head that day.”
When it was time for Nimtz, Charlotte’s mother, to address the board, she talked about how difficult it had been for her and Sturgeon’s two daughters, now ages 5 and 6, since that night.
“They still struggle over the loss of their mom on some level every day,” she said.
Nimtz told the board that, “I have forgiven Shawn. I love Shawn.” But she doesn’t want his daughters returned to him until he can prove outside of prison that he has control over his substance abuse and mental health issues. Nimtz says she recognizes that Sturgeon has been a model inmate since being incarcerated, having zero disciplinary violations and no dirty drug tests.
But the classes and treatment he receives and the accomplishments he achieves while in prison mean nothing to Nimtz. She asked the board to require that if Sturgeon is released, that he be required to continue with such programming as alcohol treatment, grief therapy and parenting classes.
“I am asking for as much protection as you can give us,” Nimtz said.
When asked if he wanted to respond to her comments, Sturgeon thanked Nimtz for having the strength to attend Tuesday’s hearing and for saying what she did.
Sturgeon ended his remarks by saying, “I want to be a good father. … I want to be somebody that other people look up to.
“I’ve been sober since that day (my wife died) and plan on being sober for the rest of my life.”
When asked if prison was an appropriate punishment, Sturgeon told the board, “Yes.” But he believes his real punishment will happen once he is released and back around the people he’s hurt and has to explain himself to them.
The full five-member board will now vote whether to grant parole or set a date for another hearing. If Sturgeon serves his full time, he will be released in 2042.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
SANDY, Utah — Rodrigo De Paul and Luis Suárez scored one minute apart late in the second half, and Dayne St. Clair earned his second clean sheet of the season as Inter Miami beat Real Salt Lake 2-0 on Wednesday night.
Soccer legend Lionel Messi played the entire 90(+7) minutes of the game in his Utah debut, but failed to score despite late opportunities.
Miami (5-1-3) is unbeaten in its last eight regular-season games to sit in second in the Eastern Conference standings.
Salt Lake (5-1-2) had a six-game unbeaten run come to an end. RSL had secured multi-goal wins in its previous two games.
De Paul took a short corner from Telasco Segovia and curled a shot into the upper-right corner of the goal in the 82nd minute.
Suárez, who entered in the 75th, volleyed a left-footed shot past goalkeeper Rafael Cabral for his second goal of the season.
The only other meeting between the teams resulted in a 2-0 victory for Miami at home in the 2024 season opener.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Utah transfer Terrence Brown gives UNC a dynamic scoring guard with playmaking upside.
Utah transfer Terrence Brown, one of the top combo guards in the portal, has committed to North Carolina, giving the Tar Heels a high-scoring backcourt addition for next season.
Brown chose UNC over Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon, Ole Miss and USC. He is ranked the No. 8 combo guard and No. 38 overall transfer by 247Sports.
The 6-foot-3 rising senior averaged 19.9 points, 3.8 assists and 2.4 rebounds for Utah last season while shootingt 45.3% from the field and 32.7% from 3-point range. He earned All-Big 12 honorable mention.
His ability to both score and create for others makes him a natural candidate to replace former Tar Heels combo guard Seth Trimble.
Here is a full breakdown of what Brown brings to the tables.
What to be excited about
For starters, Brown is a high-level scorer. He scored 20 or more points 18 times and 25 or more points nine times last season. North Carolina’s backcourt had a player score 20 or more points only five times last season. Trimble accounted for four of those games, and Bogavac had one in UNC’s regular-season finale against Clemson.
Brown has shown he can be an effective passer as well. He posted a 27.7 assist percentage, an increase of 6.4 points from the previous season. That number rose to 28.1 percent in conference play, eighth-best in the Big 12.
He has shown he can be a capable defender, averaging 1.7 steals per game throughout his career. His career best was 2.2 steals per game in 2024-25 with Fairleigh Dickinson, which led the Northeast Conference.
What to be concerned about
The only concern UNC should have with Brown is his ability to play with players just as good as, and possibly better than, he is. The worry should not be that he may intentionally ballhog. In fact, he may simply try to do too much.
Because he was on two mediocre programs such as FDU and Utah, Brown had free rein to shoot himself out of slumps as he was the No. 1 scorer and the primary ballhandler. The last two seasons, Brown has ranked in the top 15 in usage rate and has averaged 16.4 and 15.4 shots per game. While his offensive rating improved at Utah, going from 96.8 to 108.1, his effective field-goal percentage was still below 50 percent at 48.6.
He will have to learn not to put too much pressure on himself as he plays alongside teammates such as Neoklis Avdalas, Jarin Stevenson and possibly Henri Veesaar, if Veesaar returns to Chapel Hill.
How He Fits at UNC
Brown should fit in just nicely in Chapel Hill and will provide a much-needed boost to its backcourt.
With UNC’s stronger supporting cast and a coach with a championship pedigree in Michael Malone, Brown will be pushed to process the game faster. He will need to read the floor quickly, use his first step to collapse the defense or kick out to shooters, and he could form an intriguing pick-and-roll duo with both Avdalas and Veesaar.
Brown’s athleticism could be a difference-maker at UNC. All he has to do is improve his shot selection and overall efficiency.
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SALT LAKE CITY — A California man in Utah, as part of his duties with the National Guard, is accused of trying to solicit sex from a young teenager.
Joshua Ruben Rodriguez, 29, of Fresno, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with attempted rape of a child, a first-degree felony, and enticement of a minor, a second-degree felony.
The investigation began when an agent with the Utah State Bureau of Investigation posed as a 13-year-old girl on a “popular social media site … in an attempt to locate and apprehend adults attempting to have sexual contact with children,” according to charging documents.
On April 16, Rodriguez sent the agent a message — believing he was talking to a teen girl — that stated, “I’ll be direct with you, I would like to get to know you and (have sex with) your mind into a daze to where you feel like a woman,” according to charging documents.
When the “girl” asked if he had a problem with her age, Rodriguez replied, “I don’t have a problem with your age,” the charges state.
The agent told Rodriguez to meet at an apartment complex in Salt Lake County where the girl lived, claiming her mother would be gone. When Rodriguez arrived, he was taken into custody, the charges state.
“(Rodriguez) does not have ties to Utah. He is a resident of Fresno, California. (He) was in town as part of his military service with the California National Guard,” prosecutors stated in charging documents while requesting he be held without bail pending trial.
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