A federal appeals court has reversed the conviction of an Ogden man on a murder-for-hire charge, for the simple reason that nobody hired him.
Eric Wicklund was sentenced to 10 years in prison last year after a U.S. District Court jury in Salt Lake City found him guilty of conspiring to kill his wife's ex-husband, Idaho state trooper Robert Laumann, for hire.Wicklund boasted of the plot and arranged to buy rifles and other weaponry to carry it out. But before he could do anything further he was arrested by undercover officers at the time of the firearms' delivery at a Downey, Idaho, truck stop in August of 1995.
Laumann's death would have relieved Paige Wicklund of her child-support obligations, and Eric Wicklund apparently believed she would receive life insurance payments. U.S. District Judge Dee Benson held that was enough to establish the "for hire" part of the murder-for-hire charge.
"The criminal element of `consideration' in this statute is satisfied so long as the defendant intends to commit murder in order that a pecuniary benefit will flow from the killing," he wrote in January 1996.
But on appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit disagreed and overturned the conviction.
"The record contains no evidence that defendant received anything of value before his arrest, nor did anyone promise or agree to pay him anything before or after the proposed murder," Judge James Logan wrote. " . . . The district court's interpretation is too broad."
Logan added that Wicklund could very well be guilty of other crimes based on the evidence, but Wicklund's Utah defense attorney, Herschel Bullen, said charging him again might be a problem.
"My belief is that double jeopardy attaches," he said.
The U.S. Attorney's Office wouldn't say whether it plans new charges. Asst. U.S. Attorney David Schwendiman said he hasn't even received the opinion yet.
In any case, Wicklund has plenty of problems already. He escaped from the Salt Lake County Jail in February 1996, and went to Washington, where he was captured after robbing a Key Bank branch. He is now serving time in Oregon for the escape and robbery conviction.