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PROVO — In a quickly planned hearing Friday afternoon, the murder trial for Kent Cody Barlow over the deaths of two 3-year-old boys scheduled to begin Monday was cancelled. New dates for the trial have not been set.
Friday's decision to delay the trial after previous multiple rulings that the trial should go forward in September stemmed from a ruling from the Utah Supreme Court in an emergency request from Barlow's attorney, Benjamin Aldana. He asked the high court to reconsider a motion to allow him to withdraw from the case, which the 4th District Court had denied.
After the Utah Supreme Court granted Aldana's request on Friday, his co-counsel Melissa Flowerday told the judge overseeing the case that she would not be able to proceed with the trial without him. Prosecutors objected, but after a discussion she formally asked to delay the trial and the request was granted.
Deputy Utah County attorney Ryan McBride talked Friday about the position of the victims, the mothers of the two young boys who have previously asked the judge to allow the trial to proceed without any more delays.
Barlow's charges
Barlow, 28, was ordered to stand trial for two counts of murder, a first-degree felony, and possession of a controlled substance, a class A misdemeanor, through a written order on May 20 of this year.
He had earlier been ordered to stand trial for two lesser counts of manslaughter, a second-degree felony, rather than murder. Shortly after taking office, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray filed amended stricter charges. A spokesman for his office said Barlow acted with "depraved indifference to human life," which meets the standard for murder charges.
The two 3-year-old boys — Odin Jeffrey Ratliff and Hunter Charlie Jackson — had been playing in a horse corral in Eagle Mountain and were killed when a car left the road and veered into Cedar Valley Stables on May 2, 2022.
Witnesses testified that Barlow was showing off his car and driving fast when he lost control and the car went off the road and into the corral.
Previous attempts to delay the trial
There have been multiple previous attempts by Barlow's attorneys to move the trial dates, and the judge overseeing the case ruled multiple times that the trial should be held in September.
Fourth District Judge Robert Lund did grant an eight-day trial delay at one point, but Barlow's attorneys chose to keep the original dates based on witnesses who were already planning to come on the original dates.
Aldana took an extended leave beginning in June due to his father's terminal illness and said he and other attorneys with the Utah County Public Defender Association could not adequately prepare for trial as scheduled without extra time. The attorneys asked for the trial to be delayed due to Aldana's absence, but Lund ruled against that on July 30.
At the time, Lund had already denied a request from Aldana to delay the trial seeking more time to prepare.
Barlow's attorneys asked the Utah Supreme Court to address Lund's July 30 order to not delay the trial, but the court denied their petition. It said the judge has the discretion to continue a trial or not, and Lund did not abuse that discretion.
On Aug. 26 the judge denied a motion from Aldana asking to withdraw as Barlow's attorney, despite Aldana's claims he could not represent Barlow effectively while grieving. Lund cited Aldana's arguments before the court on motions in the case in August and his understanding that Barlow still wants Aldana to represent him.
Lund said there is no evidence Aldana's ability was impaired, and said co-counsel Flowerday was also capable.
"Unquestionably, Mr. Aldana's continued participation in the case is preferable. His historical knowledge of the case would be helpful to the trial team," the ruling said.
Aldana filed his petition to the Supreme Court, directly against Lund on Sept. 6, contesting his ruling on Aldana's motion to withdraw. He asked the high court to allow him "time away from this profession to properly grieve his father's unexpected death."
He claimed he is not his normal self. He said "compelled representation" like this will have an "absurd result," and argued the court does not have power to compel an attorney to represent someone. Aldana said Utah's rules for attorneys require him to withdraw if his "mental competence compromises the representation."
Requests to reduce charges
Lund previously denied a motion from Barlow's attorneys asking for the charges to be reduced back to manslaughter, instead of murder. The motion cited "vindictive prosecution" and Utah's constitutional statute for equal application of the law.
More recently, the defense asked Lund to dismiss the case based on prosecutors' "loss of evidence." Flowerday claimed in the motion there is a "reasonable probability" that evidence found on the road would have shown Barlow tried to stop or there were other factors leading to his loss of control.
The motion argued that the Utah County Sheriff's Office did not bring anyone with homicide crash reconstruction training to the scene until nine days after the crash, and the scene had not been kept under surveillance.
"The crime scene was mishandled, the roadway evidence was not preserved and exculpatory evidence was destroyed," the motion said.
A lack of information about the young boys' location before the crash, whether they could be seen by Barlow and the specific cause of their injuries, the motion states, is also impacting his case.
The motion said if the judge finds the case shouldn't be dismissed based on the loss of evidence, the judge should then consider amending the murder charges to manslaughter charges or excluding evidence favorable to prosecutors.
McBride opposed all of those steps in a response to the motion, saying because prosecutors never had exculpatory evidence they could not have destroyed it. He said there is evidence from three passengers In Barlow's car that he "never slowed down, despite their pleas and shouts to do so."
McBride said the crash into the stables led to confusion, including startling horses and people, including the boys' mothers, looking for answers. "It was impossible to completely freeze the scene," he said, and the first priority was medical aid. There were photos taken that day, however, which he said do not show skid marks.
"Exclusion of evidence in this circumstance would do nothing to deter wrongful police conduct, because there was no wrongful police conduct," the prosecutor said.
