A Utah child sex offender confessed to additional crimes. Why didn't he face additional charges?

SALT LAKE CITY — Inside concrete walls at the San Juan County Jail, a sheriff's deputy sat down across from a convicted child sex offender and recited the Miranda rights.

Wesley Salisbury, aware of his legal right to remain silent, wanted to talk.

"I got a plea deal, and it kind of makes me sick," he started.

Salisbury had specifically asked to speak to a law enforcement officer because he wanted to share information about two undisclosed victims and additional sexual crimes he'd committed but never been charged for.

But that taped conversation never led to additional charges, despite two further attempts Salisbury made to confess.

The KSL Investigators spent months asking questions and fighting for public records to understand why.

A rare confession

Using a pen and yellow pad of paper, the San Juan County sheriff's deputy jotted down notes as Salisbury spoke in July 2022.

"Trying to do this program thing here, it kind of makes you think about some of the crap you pulled," Salisbury is seen telling the deputy in body camera footage. "It's stuff I've been trying to hide."

He described feeling regret over accepting a plea deal that did not extend justice to all of the victims. He told the deputy about incidents that occurred in two other counties and suggested officials there might be able to file additional charges against him.

"Honestly, it's not about me, dude," he tells the deputy. "It's not about trying to — I'm just trying to balance the scales."

The confession included names, dates and details — dropped right into the lap of a law enforcement officer.

Through a public record request, KSL-TV also obtained a three-page incident report documenting the confession. But there's no record in the report of the agency doing anything else to move the case forward.

An early parole date

Almost nine months after Salisbury's confession, he appeared at his first parole hearing in April 2023.

"I'm kind of shocked I'm in front of you today," he told the hearing officer.

Salisbury was sentenced to serve two consecutive sentences of three years to life, amounting to a mandatory minimum sentence of six years. At the time of his parole hearing, he'd served roughly four years and nine months behind bars.

During the hearing, Salisbury shared he had a total of five victims — three involved in the case he was convicted in, and the two previously undisclosed victims.

"And you were never convicted on the other two?" the hearing officer asked.

"No. I haven't heard anything from this side of it," Salisbury said. "It came up during the treatment."

The hearing officer told Salisbury, "Sir, convince me that you are OK to be paroled and you are safe to be paroled."

"Honestly, I can't do that. I'm at the very beginning of a very long road," Salisbury responded.

He said he would always need some sort of therapy. And if Utah's Board of Pardons and Parole decided to keep him incarcerated, he would actually be "kind of happy with them."

When asked how much time he felt like he needed, Salisbury said, "That's not for me to say. I made choices for 36 years, and that's how I ended up here. That's, I don't feel even comfortable thinking about that, to be honest with you."

The hearing officer told Salisbury he needed to explore that, and "by saying that you can't say that, it's almost a cop-out."

"I know you said you're at the beginning of your programming or your beginning of your road or whatever, but at some point, you have to look at that and give a viable answer," the hearing officer said, "because it does come off as a cop-out answer to say, 'I can't say that' because again, you're the only one who's going to be able to convince somebody that you at least feel like you are ready to try."

Despite Salisbury's comments and pleas from victims in the case to keep him behind bars, the board granted a parole date for Salisbury in July 2024. That date was later moved up to February 2024. Salisbury served roughly five and a half years of his six-to-life sentence, due in part to his participation in programming that allows for reduced sentences.

A third try

Just before his parole date, Taylorsville police visited Salisbury at a community center he was living ahead of his release. Someone listening to his parole hearing was alarmed hearing about additional victims and contacted their department. Salisbury sat down with detectives from Taylorsville and told them about his previous confession and how he still hadn't heard anything about the status of the investigation.

"I'm waiting for them to, like, on the 28th, come up and freaking lock — throw me in handcuffs and drag me back," he said. "I guess it just kind of petered out or something. I don't know, I haven't heard anything one way or the other."

The conversation, also documented by police body cameras, represents Salisbury's third attempt at telling someone in the system about his uncharged crimes.

"I was just trying to balance all the scales so that way, you know, I could actually do the program and actually get something out of it," he said to the officers from Taylorsville.

He also told them, "I should have never taken the (plea) deal."

No consequences

The KSL Investigators consulted Greg Rogers, a retired FBI agent and former prosecutor, about Salisbury's confession and how it was handled.

"In 30 years of law enforcement, I've never heard of this happening," he said.

Rogers described the situation as "very, very rare," and said, "It's inexplicable to me that this case hasn't been taken very seriously."

Emails obtained by the KSL Investigators show the Taylorsville detective reached out to San Juan County to find out what they'd done with Salisbury's initial confession.

The San Juan County sheriff's deputy replied in an email, "I remember this case. I'll look into it and make sure things get taken care of."

"You don't need a year to corroborate a confession; you literally need days," said Rogers. "That's easy work."

The email thread reveals the case needed to be transferred to Uintah and Duchesne counties, where the incidents occurred. Nearly a week later, and more than 18 months since taking Salisbury's confession, the San Juan County sheriff's deputy wrote that he hadn't "had any luck" making contact with anyone in Uintah or Duchesne counties.

The KSL Investigators also reached out to the San Juan County Sheriff's Office to ask about the case. In a lengthy statement, Sheriff Lehi Lacy wrote, in part, "After the interview was conducted, the sheriff's deputy attempted to contact officials from Uintah and Duchesne counties but was unsuccessful in reaching anyone so he left messages letting them know that Mr. Salisbury had confessed to certain crimes that occurred in their counties. The deputy did not hear back from anyone. SJC could not file charges based on the disclosures as the crimes did not occur in SJC."

Lacy also wrote that after Taylorsville police got involved in the case, the chief deputy sheriff also left messages for officials in Uintah and Duchesne counties but also never heard back.

"The stuff about which jurisdiction's going to handle it, that's all nonsense," said Rogers. "That's administrative nonsense that should never get in the way of a child sexual abuse case."

In January, both the Uintah and Duchesne county sheriff's offices told KSL-TV they had no records or reports involving Salisbury.

As for the investigation by Taylorsville police, records indicate it was closed after the detective got in touch with the victims, who did not wish to be involved.

The department released a statement saying, in part, "We acknowledge the excellent work done by our detectives regarding the Wesley Salisbury investigation. At the conclusion of their case, we respect the desires of the victims to not move forward with the court process."

"There are numerous cases where victims don't want to go forward and the cases are filed," said Rogers. "(Salisbury) sounds like someone who would probably take another plea agreement and say, 'Yeah, I told you I did this. I'm sorry. I should be held responsible.' Taking all of those considerations together, that's another reason I think that I'm surprised it hasn't been charged."

Rogers said prosecutors would always prefer a cooperative victim, but in this case, they have Salisbury's own words on video.

Both the San Juan County Sheriff's Office and the Taylorsville Police Department declined interviews to discuss the case.

The KSL Investigators' attempts to reach Salisbury to speak with him directly were not successful.

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