SALT LAKE CITY — A Colorado man accused in the 2012 beating death of his Utah girlfriend is scheduled to stand trial on a murder charge later this year, but his lawyer said Friday that a recorded interview that prosecutors may use as evidence could change the case or push back the trial.
During a brief court hearing Friday morning, a Utah judge tentatively scheduled a Nov. 30 trial for 18-year-old Darwin Christopher Bagshaw.
But Chris Bown, Bagshaw’s lawyer, said he’s waiting to receive a recorded interview that prosecutors may present as evidence. He said it could impact which expert witnesses are brought in, the length of the trial and how the defense approaches the case.
Bown and prosecutors would not describe the interview or who it involved. Bown declined to tell reporters how it could alter the defense.
Bagshaw, of Grand Junction, is charged with the murder of 15-year-old Anne Kasprzak.
At the time of her death, Bagshaw was 14 and living in Utah, according to court records.
Prosecutors say Kasprzak died after she told people she was pregnant but her boyfriend didn’t want the baby. Medical examiners later determined she was never pregnant, and her parents said she had lied.
She ran away from home on March 10, 2012. The next day, a jogger found her battered body floating in the Jordan River, about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City.
An autopsy later showed Kasprzak suffered multiple blows that crushed her face and head.
Police said that when they went to question Bagshaw, they noticed he was wearing new shoes. Officers asked for his old shoes, and as he was handing them over he volunteered that Kasprzak had gotten a nosebleed at a friend’s house and dripped blood onto his shoelace, according to authorities.
He asked the friend to confirm the story to investigators who couldn’t find any of the girl’s blood at the friend’s house. Police arrested Bagshaw in October, more than two years after the death.
