Manslaughter trial starts for man charged in crash that killed Utah CEO, daughter

OGDEN — The trial of the man charged in the deaths of the chief executive officer of Lifetime Products and his daughter, killed in a 2024 car crash along Ogden Canyon Road east of Ogden, has started.

Attorneys for the two sides gave opening statements on Friday, previewing the testimony and arguments to come out, and one of the big questions for jurors will likely center around the suspect's intent and mindset. Testimony is expected to continue into next week, possibly longer.

Michael Love, of North Ogden, 53, is charged with two counts of manslaughter and a count of aggravated assault, second-degree felonies, in the July 6, 2024, crash that killed Richard Hendrickson, 57, who had led Clearfield-based Lifetime, and his daughter, Sally Hendrickson, 16. The crash injured Mollie Hendrickson, also a daughter of Richard Hendrickson, which led to the aggravated assault charge.

Thomas Pedersen, a deputy attorney in the Weber County Attorney's Office, said Love's "disregard," whether through laziness or carelessness, led to the deaths and injuries. Love was hauling a bulldozer on his flatbed tow truck when the bulldozer slid off and fell into the Hendrickson vehicle.

Love's lawyer, Greg Skordas, acknowledged that his client caused the deaths as the operator of the tow truck, saying the jury's duty is to decipher the man's "mindset" in deciding whether the charges he faces are appropriate. Others had secured the bulldozer to his tow truck, Skordas said, and Love thought it was properly in place.

"This is one of those one in a million horrible, horrible situations," Skordas said.

Love was hauling a 31,000-pound bulldozer when the piece of machinery slid off his tow truck as he negotiated a curve in the narrow canyon road, falling onto the oncoming vehicle driven by Richard Hendrickson. The force of the bulldozer sheared off the top of the Hendrickson vehicle, causing the two deaths and injuring the younger Hendrickson.

The bulldozer was too heavy for the flatbed tow truck by 4,000 to 5,000 pounds, Pedersen charged. Moreover, the piece of machinery wasn't properly secured to the tow truck, precipitating the tragedy.

It's "truly amazing," Pedersen said, that no one else was killed in the accident. Hendrickson's wife, Julie Hendrickson, and son, Samuel Hendrickson, were also in the vehicle and survived. The family had been boating at Pineview Reservoir that morning and was headed home when the accident occurred.

Love, Pedersen said, knew how to properly secure a vehicle to his tow truck as the driver for the small company he operated with his wife, Love's Towing. Yet the bulldozer was only secured to the tow truck in the front by a winch and in the rear by a chain, he said, "clearly insufficient for that load."

Love also faces a felony count of obstruction of justice and a misdemeanor count of obstruction of justice stemming from his actions and comments after the crash. He placed chains on the bed of his truck in the immediate aftermath of the crash as if to make it appear the bulldozer had been secured at several points, according to Pedersen, leading to the felony obstruction count. He also lied to law enforcement officials about how the bulldozer had been secured, Pedersen said, leading to the misdemeanor obstruction count.

Skordas said Love, jailed at the Weber County Jail since October 2024, had a commercial driver's license for 17 years and never had an issue in those years of operating a tow truck.

The manslaughter charges Love faces accuse him of "recklessly" causing the two deaths, and Skordas, while not delving into the language of the charges, suggested prosecutors may argue that Love should have known a deadly accident was possible. Thinking the bulldozer, secured by others, was properly in place, though, Love "was driving it in a fashion he thought was secure," Skordas said.

Placing the chains on his truck after the crash was a "foolish thing," Skordas said. Love's comments to law enforcement officials in the aftermath of the incident, the lawyer went on, stemmed from his misinterpretation of what had happened.

"It's unforgivable. I'm not asking you to forgive him," Skordas said. Rather, he asked jurors "to keep an open mind" in the days to come as witnesses testify and ahead of legal guidance on interpreting the charges Love faces, to be provided later from Judge Craig Hall, who's presiding in the case.

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