Opinion ID: 4549439
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Drommond’s Desire to Prevent Reed

Text: from Dating or Marrying Someone Else ¶20 As mentioned above, Drommond lived with his parents after the divorce. But at the end June 2005—about a month after he was released from Lakeview Hospital—he moved into an apartment with some roommates. ¶21 Drommond‘s roommate, Rian Carlson, testified that, a couple of months before the murder, Drommond asked Carlson to get him a gun so the two could start a ―bounty hunter service‖ or, more accurately, so Drommond could have the gun to use as an ―an intimidation factor.‖ Carlson said that he obtained a handgun __________________________________________________________ 1 According to Dr. Gummow, bipolar disorder NOS is the diagnosis that a physician gives a patient when the physician does not know what type of bipolar disorder the patient has. 2 Dr. Gummow explained that there are ―several different types of bipolar disorders‖ but that ―bipolar disorder one means you‘ve had a clear manic episode and you have an episode of depression, multiple.‖ 5 STATE v. DROMMOND Opinion of the Court about a month before the murder and gave it to Drommond. That was the handgun that Drommond would use to murder Reed. ¶22 Carlson testified that he and Drommond eventually shared their ―bounty hunter idea‖ with a friend named Michael Hansen. Carlson testified that Drommond talked with him and Hansen about how they were going to ―scare‖ and ―rough [] up‖ people who owed him money. The group never followed through with any of those plans, and the group‘s focus soon shifted to Reed. ¶23 Carlson explained at trial that Drommond found out that Reed was dating someone, and he didn‘t like it. He wanted to put a stop to it. So, testified Carlson, two or three weeks before the murder, Drommond talked with him and Hansen about scaring Reed out of dating by breaking into her house and cutting her phone line. Carlson told the jury that the group never did so but that Drommond did have Hansen drive by Reed‘s house and her boyfriend‘s house to ―check it out.‖ ¶24 Detective Lloyd Kilpack, who investigated Reed‘s murder, testified that Hansen told him in an interview that Drommond even paid Hansen $400 to break into Reed‘s house to tell her not to marry her fiancé and to drive by Reed‘s house and her fiancé‘s to jot down the license plate numbers of the vehicles parked outside.3 (Hansen never did so.) Detective Kilpack also testified that Hansen told him that, on the day before the murder, Drommond again asked Hansen to break into Reed‘s house and scare her out of getting married, reminding Hansen that he had paid him $400 to do so. Detective Kilpack added that Hansen even showed him a text message from Drommond in ―which Mr. Hansen was reminded that he was given $400 by Mr. Drommond for this particular situation and driving by the house.‖ According to Detective Kilpack‘s testimony, Hansen refused to go through with it and offered to return Drommond the money. Detective Kilpack testified that he saw the following text message from Drommond to Hansen in response: ―I‘ve been doing this for years. __________________________________________________________ 3 Detective Kilpack also testified that Drommond‘s father told him that, a few weeks before the murder, Drommond ―told his mother that he was going to hurt [Reed]‖ and ―told [his mother] not to be a hero.‖ According to Kilpack, Drommond told his mother ―that if he wasn‘t able to do it, he had an army that would accomplish it for him.‖ 6 Cite as: 2020 UT 50 Opinion of the Court Don‘t worry about it. I‘ll take care of this.‖ Apart from Kilpack‘s testimony about the text messages, we refer in this opinion to the testimony in this paragraph as the Kilpack–Hansen Hearsay Testimony.