Opinion ID: 2736105
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Guilt-Phase Proceedings

Text: ¶18 Brooke Wells, currently a federal magistrate judge, acted as lead counsel in Mr. Menzies‘s case.11 Frances Palacios acted as 9 The record is unclear regarding exactly how much money was missing because of the gas station‘s loose accounting practices. 10 See infra ¶¶ 71–223. 11Throughout this opinion we refer to Judge Brooke Wells as ―Ms. Wells‖ because at the time of her representation of (continued) 8 Cite as: 2014 UT 40 Opinion of the Court co-counsel and second chair in the case. The defense theory advocated by Ms. Wells and Ms. Palacios is described in depth below. In short, they relied on a failure-of-proof defense.12 This defense consisted of two parts. First, they argued that the State could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Menzies killed Mrs. Hunsaker. And second, they argued that the State could not prove an aggravator that would support a capital conviction. After a month-long trial, a jury rejected the failure-ofproof defense theory and convicted Mr. Menzies of capital homicide and aggravated kidnapping.