Utahn D.J. Harrison pleads guilty to kidnapping, murder of UTA worker in Wyoming

Dereck James Harrison, 23, appeared in Judge Michael Allphin's Second District courtroom with his attorney, Michael Edwards, in Farmington. File photo: Pool

KEMMERER, Wyo., April 17, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — Dereck James “D.J.” Harrison on Monday pleaded guilty in the murder of Utah Transit Authority employee Kay Porter Ricks, who was kidnapped from Salt Lake City, and whose body was dumped in a remote area of Wyoming last year.

Harrison, 23, agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping in exchange for prosecutors’ promise not to seek the death penalty, and to drop weapons charges. The penalty Harrison agreed to was life without parole for the murder, and 20 to 22 years for kidnapping, with terms to run consecutively.

The judge will announce on May 17 — the one-year anniversary of the victim’s body being found — whether he accepts the plea deal and what Harrison’s exact sentence will be.

Harrison put the blame for the killing on his father, Flint Harrison, who was 51 when he hanged himself in the Davis County Jail last July.

D.J. Harrison told the judge that he believed Ricks would be turned loose in Wyoming, and it was Flint Harrison who killed Ricks.

Harrison is also serving 30 years to life in the Utah State Prison for kidnapping a Clinton woman and her four daughters. On May 10, 2016, Harrison and his father lured the woman and her four teenage daughters to a Centerville residence, saying they planned a barbecue.

After the woman and her daughters arrived, the Harrisons tied them up and began attacking the mother. Some of the girls escaped and ran for help, and all survived.

The next day, in an apparent plan to escape the area, the Harrisons kidnapped Ricks and took his work truck and left the state.

Ricks was found dead from severe head trauma where he was left in the sagebrush near a dirt road outside Kemmerer, Wyo.

In the Davis County case, Harrison pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony. In a plea deal, prosecutors dismissed 11 assault, weapons and drug charges.

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