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SALT LAKE CITY — A 78-year-old man has been ordered to stand trial for the 2021 murder of a Sandy woman after waiving his right to a preliminary hearing.
William Richard O'Reilly, of South Jordan, is accused of shooting and stabbing Masako Yamada Kenley, an acquaintance and former co-worker, multiple times, and then dumping her body near the Jordan River in Sandy. He is charged with murder and discharge of a firearm causing serious injury, both first-degree felonies; and obstructing justice, a second-degree felony.
O'Reilly's attorney, Rudy Bautista, told the court his client wished to waive his right to a preliminary hearing and would like to plead not guilty to the charges against him.
O'Reilly himself appeared slumped over at the courthouse. He explained that he had some medical issues that made it hard to come to the court — citing tooth pain, nausea and a kidney stone — but he assured the judge he was physically capable of understanding his decision.
Kenley, 53, disappeared on July 2, 2021, on her way to meet friends for dinner. Charging documents say police detectives used data from cellphones and surveillance video to confirm Kenley and O'Reilly were together the day she disappeared.
When interviewed, police say O'Reilly told them Kenley had gotten upset with him for putting a GPS tracking device on her car and told him "they were done and to take the GPS tracker off her vehicle." He reported during the interview that he did not remember what happened at the river bottoms area where her body was found, charges say.
In addition to the not-guilty pleas, O'Reilly asked the court to reschedule an upcoming detention hearing for a later date in the hope he will be able to resolve his health issues ahead of the hearing. He will be back in court on Aug. 5 to schedule the detention hearing, at which time Bautista will argue that his client does not need to be held in jail while awaiting trial and should be released and kept on an ankle monitor.
