BY DAVID GRANT LONG

MONTICELLO — "Snake Eyes" rolled the equivalent of his jailhouse namesake and "Tank Dog" went in the tank.

A San Juan County, Utah, jury convicted two Dove Creek brothers yesterday of brutally murdering the alleged best friend of one defendant, supposedly over a $300 drug debt.

After a four-day trial in Monticello, Terril "Snake Eyes" Calliham, 20, and Jordan "Tank Dog" Calliham, 17, were found guilty of criminal homicide in the shooting death of James Eaton, an 18-year old Dolores County High School junior whose bullet-riddled body was found just across the Utah state line five days after he was reported missing last Easter.

Conviction on a first-degree felony is punishable by anywhere from a 15-year sentence to life in prison, a determination that will be made at a sentencing hearing Feb. 24.

Eaton, described repeatedly during testimony as Jordan Calliham’s best friend, was shot 19 times in his upper body by two 9-mm handguns, according to expert witnesses, resulting in several wounds that by themselves would have been fatal. The discovery of his frozen remains by a passing motorist sparked a three-week investigation involving Colorado and Utah police agencies that led to the suspects’ arrests.

Misty Ernst, who had also been charged with criminal homicide for her role in the murder, provided county attorney Craig Halls with key evidence in obtaining the convictions after she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and agreed to testify against the defendants last summer.

Ernst, a 23-year-old single mother, had been Jordan Calliham’s lover for two years before the shooting, she testified Tuesday, and initially lied to protect him during interviews with police. She eventually had pleaded guilty to obstructing justice in return for a guarantee of probation that could include a short jail term but no prison time.

Ernst recounted that she had driven the Callihams and Eaton from Dove Creek to the Ucolo Road just inside the Utah state line on April 3 knowing the defendants planned to do "something" to the victim because he was suspected of stealing $300 worth of drugs from Jordan’s stash.

She said she had frequently used drugs —mostly crystal methamphetamine —with the three youths and they had been on their way to buy some drugs in Monticello that night when Eaton asked her to stop so they could smoke a joint outside the car.

The Callihams then lured Eaton into a small stand of cedar trees about 60 feet from the road, she said, while she stayed with the car. After she heard numerous shots, they returned without Eaton, and both made remarks indicating they’d killed him.

Jordan told her he’d "finished him off in the head," she said, while Terril commented that he was worried he would have to "kick him over" after Eaton failed to collapse upon being shot several times.

Dolores County Sheriff Jerry Martin testified Wednesday that Ernst had provided police with details of the shooting not yet known to the public when she was interviewed in late April, including its specific location, a close estimate of the number of shots fired and the fact that Eaton had been shot once in the head.

Martin said the timing of the events she described also fit with Eaton’s last known location, when he’d been dropped off near the Calliham residence by his grandfather earlier that night.

Defense attorneys based much of their case on attempting to impeach Ernst’s credibility and her account of the slaying, calling witness after witness to testify that she had a well-established reputation in Dove Creek as a liar.

Stephen McCaughey, Terril Calliham’s lawyer, also attempted to establish an alibi that placed his client elsewhere at the time of Eaton’s murder.

Various witnesses testified they’d been with Terril Calliham that evening during times that would have made his presence on the Ucolo Road impossible when Ernst said the killing took place; however, those accounts differed among themselves and left Halls with enough leeway in a reconstructed timeline to convince the jury otherwise.

Fellow jail inmates also testified that Jordan Calliham had described details of the shooting to them, including how Eaton "vibrated" as he was being shot and how Calliham had delivered the final shot to Eaton’s head.

Neither murder weapon was recovered, but a forensic expert testified that ten of the shell casings recovered at the scene had been fired from a 9mm Smith & Wesson Sigma semi-automatic pistol, a relatively rare type of handgun that Terril Calliham had admitted to Martin that he owned.

Throughout the trial the defendants appeared to be in good spirits that were obviously bouyed by the presence of many relatives in the courtroom. Members of the victim’s family — mother Roxie, stepfather David Buterbaugh and grandparents Jack and Almetta Eaton — were also present during the trial.

James Eaton had been described by Dolores High School Principal Steve Baroch as a "typical high-school student" who got along well with his classmates, and the 1999 Bulldog yearbook was dedicated to his memory.

Terril Calliham, a 1998 graduate of Dolores County High, was co-captain of the boys’ basketball team his senior year and had been Eaton’s teammate on both the baseball and basketball teams.