OGDEN, Utah, Nov. 15, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — A Layton teen, who pleaded guilty in juvenile court last month to one count of attempted murder, on Wednesday pleaded guilty to the charge again — this time in adult court.
Marilee Gardner, 17, was sentenced to juvenile detention last month. In adult court, she faces 3 years to life in prison. She will serve her prison time after she turns 21.
Gardner was behind the wheel of her parents’ Chevy Tahoe in the early morning of June 30, 2016, when she rear-ended a much smaller Hyundai Accent stopped at an intersection in Roy. Gardner told officers at the scene that she had done it on purpose in an attempt to kill herself.
Instead, she killed 20-year-old Madison Haan, of West Point, and 19-year-old Tyler Christianson, of Ogden.
Gardner was originally charged with two counts of murder. As part of a plea deal, some charges were dropped, and she will be allowed to remain in the juvenile facility until age 21.
The arrest warrant says that after the 2016 collision, Gardner ran into a nearby Winco food store, where she called her father and told him “she was in a crash in Roy city and she might have hurt someone.”
Gardner waved her Miranda rights and told a Roy Police detective she was “on her way to a Winegar’s in Roy city to meet a 17-year-old friend,” where she planned on “purchasing drugs, taking the drugs, then crashing her mother’s car with both of them inside in an attempt to kill themselves.”
The arrest warrant goes on to say Gardner had a troubled past and had attempted to run away on multiple occasions.
Gardner, of Layton, faces her next hearing in 2021.
