A Santaquin police officer places his gloves on the casket of Sgt. Bill Hooser at the Santaquin City Cemetery on Monday, May 13, 2024. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch)
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the man accused of murdering a Santaquin police officer earlier this year.
According to court documents filed on Wednesday, the Utah County Attorney’s Office intends to pursue the death penalty against Michael Aaron Jayne, who allegedly struck and killed Santaquin Police Sgt. Bill Hooser in May.
In the notice, prosecutors say they consulted Hooser’s family. The decision to pursue the death penalty “is supported by the evidence and the interests of justice,” the notice reads.
In May, 42-year-old Jayne was charged in the 4th District Court with nine felonies, including aggravated murder which is a capital crime. Per Utah code, a jury has to reach a unanimous decision to sentence someone to death — if the jury is not unanimous, a sentence of 25 years to life will be imposed.
Lethal injection is the default method of execution in Utah. However, in certain scenarios, a court can decide to use a firing squad if “execution by lethal injection is unconstitutional on its face.” For instance, if the state is unable to obtain lethal injection drugs.
The death penalty can take years, even decades to carry out, with the condemned exhausting every appeal possible. Utah carried out its first death sentence in 10 years this summer, executing Taberon Honie by lethal injection just after midnight on Aug. 8 — Honie was sentenced to death in 1999.
On May 5, Jayne was driving a semitrailer on Interstate 15 when Hooser stopped him for blowing through a stop sign on the off-ramp, then continuing back on the on-ramp and onto the highway. Police were already searching for Jayne, after he called 911 claiming “that someone was riding on the back of the trailer of the semi truck he was driving,” according to court documents.
While Hooser and a highway patrol trooper tried talking with Jayne, a woman jumped out of the passenger door with her hands up “pleading for help,” according to a probable cause affidavit. The woman later told officers she had been held against her will after Jayne threatened her with “chemical bear spray and a knife.”
That’s when Hooser and the trooper moved in to detain Jayne, who put the truck in gear and fled, according to the affidavit. While Hooser and the trooper ran back to their cars, Jayne turned his truck around and drove back toward them. He accelerated quickly, with “black smoke billowing out of the exhaust smokestack,” court documents read.
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As Hooser tried to run for safety, Jayne intentionally struck and killed him with the truck, prosecutors say. He nearly hit the highway patrol trooper and the woman as well, per court documents.
Jayne proceeded to go on a wild crime spree, stopping about 100 feet from where he struck Hooser and fleeing on foot to a nearby gas station, according to the Utah County Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors say he stole a semitrailer, drove it to the town of Mona, then stole a Ford pickup that he drove to the town of Mt. Pleasant. There, he broke into a home and stole another Ford pickup and a pair of boots before heading north toward Vernal. While he drove north, at speeds of over 100 mph, he was intercepted by highway patrol troopers.
In addition to aggravated murder, Jayne was also charged with two counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of aggravated kidnapping, all first-degree felonies; three counts of automobile theft and one count of burglary, all second-degree felonies; and one count of failing to obey the lawful command of a police officer to stop, a third-degree felony.
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