Typical Monkey Behavior: HeBoon trapped after the murder of his male monkey-in-law

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid48&sid2069422&hl
OREM -- An Orem man charged with gunning down his brother-in-law is another
step closer to
standing trial for murder. Stephen Strate will face a jury next month as his
fate is decided.

Strate, 54, called 911 minutes after the October 2009 shooting. He told
dispatchers he was being
attacked with a chair, but prosecutors believe Strate was the aggressor and
was completely
unjustified in opening fire.

"He came after me with a damn chair," Strate told the dispatcher.

"He came after you with a chair?" the dispatcher asked.

"Yeah," Strate said.

"And so you shot him six or seven times?" the dispatcher said.

"Yeah," Strate answered.

Police responded and found Strate's 51-year-old brother-in-law, Marvin
Sidwell, was dead. He had
been shot five times.

Strate told police Sidwell came after him with a stool. After police
investigated, Strate was
arrested and charged with murder.

"We feel the defendant's actions here were egregious and do constitute
murder beyond a reasonable
doubt without any just provocation," said Deputy Utah County Attorney Craig
Johnson. "If there
was a legitimate self-defense argument it's on us to review and decide how
that cuts against the
case, and we don't feel it's valid under these circumstances."

Neither Strate nor his attorney Ron Yengich wanted to comment about the
impending trial. But
during a pre-trial hearing Thursday, Yengich told the judge the defense will
call expert
witnesses dealing with crime scene investigation and how someone can be
affected by meth use.

The autopsy found Sidwell had methamphetamine in his system at the time of
the shooting, which
the defense has suggested made Sidwell a dangerous threat.

"Whether the guy was high on meth or not, a stool is not up to the level
that Utah law requires
for shooting and killing them in their bedroom," Johnson said. "Ultimately
only one person in
that room had a gun and it wasn't the person who died, it was the defendant
Mr. Strate."

A jury will sort it out beginning late September. Jury selection will begin
Sept. 27 and the
trial is expected to last about a week.

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