Utah
Utah’s self-defense laws in spotlight following two high-profile cases
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Utah’s self-defense laws are in the spotlight following two high-profile cases. A law that went into effect in 2021 allows defendants to challenge the charge before trial by proving their use of force was justified.
The law requires the state to present “clear and convincing evidence” that a defendant’s use of force was not justified, with a judge deciding the outcome. If the prosecution fails to meet this burden, the case is dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can never be refiled.
At the time, House Bill 227 chief sponsor, state Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, said she was trying to decrease the risk to Utahns whose lives could be upended with lengthy and costly prosecutions and incarceration after trying to protect themselves. 2News Investigates asks if the justification hearing is working as Rep. Lisonbee intended while prosecutors claim it is an even more rigorous review for them that could be resulting in fewer cases filed.
MORE | Previous Reports
Body Camera Footage Captures Matt Alder’s Statements Following “No Kings” Shooting
On June 14, 2025, Arthur Folasa “Afa” Ah Loo was shot in the head during the “No Kings” march in downtown Salt Lake City. A safety volunteer, previously called a “peacekeeper,” Matt Alder told police that he saw a man later identified as Arturo Gamboa holding a rifle and told them he believed Gamboa was preparing to open fire on the protesters. Alder shot at Gamboa three times, injuring him and fatally striking Ah Loo.
Body camera footage from another safety volunteer at the scene captured Alder telling him what he saw prior to firing his gun. To be clear, Alder’s attorney, Phil Wormdahl, gave 2News Investigates permission to use the footage of his client. Police body camera footage from that day is not being released while the case is pending.
Matt Alder: Guy was around the corner, had an AR — he was ducked in around the corner like this — he was like loading his rifle and sh*t. I saw him. I fired a couple shots at the building to try to warn him off, get him to stop and he just took off.
Matt Alder: I can’t believe it. I fu**ing saw him, he was fu**ng loading an AR right fu**ing there.
A man asks Alder, “Did you just freeze for a second, couldn’t fu**ing believe it, or did you go for your gun?”
Matt Alder: For like half a second I pulled my gun, got behind the column, and I took shots at him.
Matt Alder: I saw him loading the fu**ing rifle like that dude was definitely not there for fu**ing fun.
Alder then asks about the man on the ground.
Matt Alder: F**k me, I hope that guy’s all right.
Earlier in the footage, he is seen kneeling down on the ground around responders who were trying to tend to Ah Loo.
Matt Alder Charged With Manslaughter 172 Days Later
It took nearly six months for the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office to file criminal charges in this case. On Dec. 3, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill and Deputy District Attorney Josh Graves filed one count of Manslaughter, a Second-Degree Felony, against Alder in connection with Ah Loo’s death. The information filing states that the “defendant did recklessly cause the death of another.”
That same day, DA Gill held a press conference at his office. He explained the screening process in this case.
“We went through a very sort of arduous process internally with our entire homicide team, and we tried to turn every stone we could,” Gill said.
He also said they weighed the evidence against Utah’s self-defense laws and the state’s self-defense justification law.
On December 3, 2025 Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill and Deputy District Attorney Josh Graves charged Matt Alder with one count of Manslaughter, a Second Degree Felony. (KUTV)
Road Rage Case Involving Death of Pat Hayes
Another example for the 2News investigation is the Sept. 25, 2024, shooting death of Pat Hayes in Wasatch County following a road-rage incident between Hayes and Greg DeBoer at Jordanelle State Park in the Ross Creek area. That deadly shooting was captured by surveillance cameras atop the buildings.
Greg DeBoer: “Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.”
Pat Hayes: “You want to get out. Come on ***** boy. Come on. Come on ******. What’s wrong, what’s wrong. Come on. Come on, you little *****.”
Pat Hayes: “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.”
In October, Jim Bradshaw, the civil attorney for Hayes’ family, questioned why the Wasatch County Attorney’s Office won’t let a jury decide this case. Bradshaw told Judge Jennifer Mabey, “The conduct in this case is taking Pat Hayes life. And I don’t think anyone disputes that Mr. DeBoer did that — he’s admitted that.”
In a statement to 2News Investigates, County Attorney Scott Sweat wrote, “The Wasatch County Attorney’s Office does not believe that there is a likelihood that the evidence can disprove beyond a reasonable doubt the assertion of self-defense in this case.”
An excerpt from Wasatch County Attorney Scott Sweat’s statement in the Greg DeBoer case as to why his office could not disprove self-defense. (KUTV)
No homicide charge. No justification hearing. DeBoer is charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly hiding the gun used to kill Hayes under a rock in his backyard.
The Justification Hearing Law
In 2021, Utah State Representative Karianne Lisonbee (R-District 14) was the chief sponsor of House Bill 227, creating a new hearing called a “justification hearing.”
During that hearing, prosecutors must prove to a judge that self-defense does not apply and the defendant’s use of force was not justified.
It’s a lower standard here in that self-defense does not apply by “clear and convincing evidence.” But during a jury trial, it’s “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” The judge then decides whether the use of force was justified. If the judge finds that it was justified, the court dismisses the case with prejudice. If the judge rules it was not justified, the defendant can still present a self-defense claim to a jury.
Rep. Lisonbee Says the Law Is Working as She Intended
Rep. Lisonbee was not available for an on-camera interview for this report but says the law is working as she intended. 2News Investigates asked her about both cases, that of Matt Alder and Greg DeBoer. Rep. Lisonbee criticized the delay in Alder’s case, attributing it to failures in the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office. She maintained that the law is functioning as intended, allowing for prompt and appropriate charges if evidence supports it. She issued the following statement to 2News Investigates.
Utah State Representative Karianne Lisonbee criticized the Salt Lake County District Attorney for the length of time it took his office to file a criminal charge against Matt Alder. (KUTV)
2News Investigates provided Rep. Lisonbee’s statement to DA Gill and asked for a response to her criticism.
Keith Chalmers, communications manager for the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office, sent the following response via email:
“The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office requested the grand jury on Oct. 6, the earliest date available to do so. The panel denied the grand jury on Nov. 5, but Gill said a similar case in Massachusetts helped shine some light on a path forward on charges. Furthermore, our ballistics test results, which were looking at whether the bullet that killed Mr. Ah Loo was a ricochet, did not come back until Nov. 20,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill’s response to 2News Investigates regarding Rep. Lisonbee’s criticism. (KUTV)
Former Prosecutor Weighs In on How Law Affects Prosecutors
Nathan Evershed, a former Salt Lake County deputy district attorney, spent eleven years working in Gill’s office, reviewed both cases and spoke on camera with 2News Investigates for this report. He has prosecuted several of Utah’s high-profile cases. He is now a criminal defense attorney. He said the justification law has had an impact on the screening of cases for criminal charges by prosecutors.
“A justification hearing causes the prosecutors to rethink their case — that is for sure. Because they know that they will have to answer to the evidence that they have presented much sooner than a jury trial in the court hearing,” Evershed said.
He had this to say about the justification law itself: “The justification hearing law is forcing prosecutors to really evaluate their cases and to make sure that they can get through a justification hearing by clear and convincing evidence.”
He further said, “What is needed for a justification hearing and at the end of the day what is needed for trial is evidence. The prosecution needs evidence in order to disprove self-defense.”
Additionally, he said, “There’s two bites at the apple: the defendant has to assert self-defense claims, so does it cause a greater onus on the prosecutors to make sure that they can disprove self-defense — absolutely. That part of the law I think has come to fruition in terms of what the prosecutors are doing. They’re analyzing cases much more thoroughly for self-defense issues, and one big reason that they do that is under our system of law — the defendant doesn’t have to prove anything.”
Evershed said evidence is of the utmost importance. “It really comes down to the evidence, and so now prosecutors are in a place where they have to really strategically and meticulously look at the evidence and see if they can get through a justification hearing in order to get to a jury trial.”
And as a result, he told 2News Investigates, “Less cases are probably being filed because of that.”
______
BEAVER COUNTY, Utah — A massive community effort is underway as volunteers and Beaver County crews distribute thousands of sandbags to protect homes from the potential path of floodwaters.
After the Cottonwood Fires, residents have been waiting for weeks for relief to come in the form of rain, though officials now warn it may come all at once with an increased risk of flooding and debris flow.
Emergency Service Director Les Whitney believes that the fire has left plenty of debris to bring trouble for residents.
“We got a lot of water. We’re bringing debris with it, so tree branches, tree limbs, logs, lots of different size firewood, and that’s all in the creeks. We’re worried about that plugging up our bridges and stuff, so we have heavy equipment and excavators located in strategic places so that we can keep those bridges open,” said Whitney.
An estimated 140 homes and condominiums were spared from the flames, but remain in the paths of floodwaters.
Residents can also pick up sandbags at the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office or at the Beaver County Rodeo Fairgrounds.
EAGLE MOUNTAIN — An Eagle Mountain man currently on pretrial release in 4th District Court who is accused of abusing his dog has been arrested again for allegedly punching the same animal.
Keith Reaves Davis, 43, was booked into the Utah County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of aggravated cruelty to an animal.
Utah County sheriff’s deputies were called Wednesday afternoon to a grocery store on a report that a man was beating his dog after it had gotten off its leash and was stopped by a bystander, according to a police booking affidavit.
“I reviewed security camera footage from the grocery store, and an individual matching the description of the suspect was seen holding the dog in the air by one paw and repeatedly striking the dog on the right hind leg area. I observed the male strike the dog several times before dropping the dog from approximately 1-2 feet. The strikes appeared to be as hard as the male could hit,” the arresting deputy wrote in the affidavit. “The dog did not cry out or whimper as if the dog was accustomed to the abuse.”
When questioned, Davis “admitted to striking the dog because it was not behaving,” the affidavit states.
An animal control officer who responded to the scene to take custody of the dog noted it was the same dog he had taken from Davis exactly three months earlier during another animal abuse investigation.
In that case, Davis was charged in 4th District Court with aggravated cruelty to an animal, a class A misdemeanor; and public intoxication, a class C misdemeanor, after deputies received a tip from a neighbor that a dog was being abused at Davis’ home, according to charging documents. When questioned, Davis “acknowledged hitting his dog as punishment,” the charges state.
Deputies also reviewed videos that the neighbor had filmed. The neighbor told investigators “there was blood from the dog on the ground of the garage and (the neighbor) can hear the dog screaming as if it’s being hurt. Deputies got the videos from the (neighbor) and you can hear very loudly the dog screaming and crying with a lot of loud banging noises. In one of the videos, you can hear the dog sounding like it is being choked by a collar and is grasping for air,” a police booking affidavit states.
Davis’ next court hearing in the April case is scheduled for July 28.
In their latest booking report, sheriff’s deputies note that they “believe further harm will be inflicted on this dog if it is released back to the male a second time,” and have recommended the dog not be returned to Davis.
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.
Two years after October 7th attacks, Gaza war reshapes global politics
Two years after Hamas attacked Israel, Gaza lies in ruins and global alliances have shifted. Correction: A previous version of this video incorrectly identified the conflict. The conflict is between Israel and Hamas.
A man was arrested in Utah after allegedly stabbing a Muslim employee at a mall multiple times and telling investigators he targeted the victim because of his religion, according to court records.
Peter Michael Larsen, 48, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder and prohibited dangerous weapon conduct following the attack on July 13 at the Valley Fair Mall in West Valley City, Utah, court and online jail records show. West Valley City is a suburb of Salt Lake City.
The West Valley City Police Department said the incident occurred shortly before 3 p.m. local time, when Larsen approached a man working at a kiosk at the mall.
“After a brief interaction, the suspect pulled out a knife and began stabbing him multiple times,” police said in a statement on X. “A few bystanders interfered, and were able to separate the suspect from the victim and subdue the suspect until police arrived.”
The victim, who was not identified by authorities, sustained multiple stab wounds and was taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to police and court records.
Larsen told investigators that he had “targeted the victim with intent to kill him because of his religion (Muslim),” police said in an affidavit obtained by USA TODAY. The affidavit also states Larsen said he believes he is “a catalyst” and “intends to kill Muslims.”
The incident remains under investigation, and police said they were looking into any possible relationship between the suspect and victim. USA TODAY reached out to the West Valley City Police Department for comment.
Police: Suspect poses a ‘substantial danger to the public’
The suspect approached the Muslim man, asked for his name, asked about his religion, and indicated he wanted a bottle of water, The Salt Lake Tribune reported, citing comments from Imam Shuaib Din, who leads the Utah Islamic Center and had been in contact with the victim’s family.
As the victim turned to get the water, the attacker began stabbing him, Din told the newspaper. Police said in the affidavit that they received multiple 911 calls at around 2:30 p.m. local time reporting two men “involved in a physical altercation where one male was stabbing the other.”
When officers arrived at the scene, they observed bystanders pinning the suspect to the ground and “had already removed the knife from his hand,” according to the affidavit. Police said the victim was “bleeding profusely” and was then transported to the hospital.
The victim was identified by friends as Syed Sohail Uddin, local television station FOX 13 and The New York Times reported. A GoFundMe fundraiser organized on his behalf said he was stabbed 15 times and required multiple surgeries.
Larsen was also transported to the hospital “due to being punched in the head from bystanders trying to get the knife out of his hand,” according to the affidavit. He was later medically cleared and taken to the police station for an interview.
Police said in the affidavit that Larsen posed “a substantial danger to the public if released based on his violent actions today, ideologies and pre-planned mass casualty events.”
Advocates condemn stabbing attack at Utah mall
Muslim advocacy groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), condemned the attack.
“This horrific attack is yet another reminder that anti-Muslim rhetoric has real-world consequences. When Muslims are routinely demonized, portrayed as threats, or treated as less deserving of equal rights and dignity, some twisted individuals inevitably act on that hatred,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement on July 14.
Civil rights advocates have noted a rise in Islamophobia in the United States over the last two-plus decades following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and more recently because of immigration policies and the fallout of the Israel-Hamas war, according to Reuters.
CAIR, which is the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, reported last year that it received a record number of complaints of discrimination and Islamophobic attacks amid the war.
The organization received more than 8,650 complaints in 2024, the highest number since CAIR began publishing its annual civil rights report in 1996, according to the report released in March 2025. Complaints rose more than 7%, breaking the previous record set in 2023.
The Utah attack follows several high-profile incidents targeting Muslims in recent years, including the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois in 2023 and a deadly shooting at a San Diego mosque earlier this year.
Contributing: N’dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY; Reuters
-
Los Angeles, Ca10 minutes agoLADWP begins long-term repairs after West Hollywood water main rupture
-
Detroit, MI34 minutes agoLivestream: Mayor Sheffield, Detroit health chief to address wildfire smoke threat
-
San Francisco, CA46 minutes agoA sculpture of a giant naked woman goes on sale in San Francisco. Bring a crane
-
Dallas, TX52 minutes agoNo ‘straight answer’: Why Pioneer Cemetery is the latest battleground at City Hall
-
Miami, FL58 minutes agoTSA hosts news conference ahead of World Cup third place match at Miami Stadium
-
Boston, MA1 hour agoICE Boston arrests Barbados national during targeted operations in Attleboro
-
Denver, CO1 hour agoDenver Broncos training camp is 2 weeks away
-
San Diego, CA1 hour agoDaily Business Report: July 17, 2026, San Diego Metro Magazine
