Louis D. Kinyon has admitted he shot his boss, Kent Neil Griffith, to death before trying to kill himself last year after the boss suspended him over porn on his work computer.
Kinyon pleaded guilty to aggravated murder May 10, in exchange for getting charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and aggravated assault dropped, according to published reports which said prosecutors also agreed not to seek the death penalty if he pleaded guilty.
Kinyon was suspended from his job at the Provo River Water Users Association in Pleasant Grove early in February 2004, after the porn was found on his office computer. Police said he returned with a handgun shortly after receiving his suspension, but Griffith stopped him at the entrance. That’s when Kinyon fired.
The first bullet hit Griffith in the shoulder, but he was able to get other workers to other exits, police said, before the two men moved to the front lawn and Kinyon shot Griffith in the back of his neck before shooting himself under the chin.
A sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled pending the defense filing a waiver to be sentenced by jury and not judge. Prosecutors reportedly told Griffith's family members at the May 10 court session that the judge in the case didn't want to sentence Kinyon in the same session as the plea, before the waiver is filed, to avoid a possible overturned conviction on appeal.
