BY DAVID GRANT LONG

MONTICELLO, UTAH — Terril and Jordan Calliham, the two Dove Creek brothers convicted of murdering Jordan’s best friend, 17-year-old James Eaton, were sentenced Thursday to serve between five years and the rest of their lives in a Utah prison after a hearing in which neither accepted any responsibility for the murder.

Seventh District Judge Lyle Anderson, visibly disturbed after reading several obscene and threatening letters written by the Caliham brothers to each other since their convictions, said that the two would remain behind bars for many years.

"The board of pardons can hold these individuals for the rest of their natural lives if they want to," said Anderson, vowing to write a letter to the board recommending a lengthy prison sentence.

In Utah, judges impose a prescribed sentencing range on convicted felons, but the time they actually serve is decided by the board of pardons and paroles. The presumptive sentence range for the crime the Callihams were convicted of — criminal homicide — is between five years and life in prison.

The men were convicted after a four-day jury trial in January during which neither testified. Eaton was shot 19 times with two 9mm handguns after being lured into a stand of cedar trees just inside the Utah state line last Easter weekend.

Misty Ernst, who was also involved in the slaying and who had been charged with criminal homicide, became the prosecution’s key witness after pleading guilty to a lesser felony last summer and agreeing to testify against the brothers.

During the trial, Ernst described how she had driven Eaton and the Callihams from Dove Creek to the Ucolo Road knowing the brothers were going to do "something" to the victim because they believed he’d stolen drugs from Jordan.

Ernst said she stayed in the car while Eaton accompanied his killers into a grove of cedar trees, then heard numerous shots being fired before the Callihams came running back from the trees without Eaton and indicated he’d been shot. His body was spotted six days later by a passing motorist and the suspects were arrested after a three-week investigation by Colorado and Utah authorities.

Ernst, 23, testified that she and Jordan Calliham, her 16-year-old lover, then attempted to establish an alibi by driving to Cortez after dropping Terril off at their residence, where Jordan later showed her the blood-spattered murder weapons. The guns were never recovered, but Terril Calliham had admitted to Dolores County Sheriff Jerry Martin that he owned a 9mm Sigma semi-automatic handgun — the same model as one of the two pistols used in the shooting.

The brothers’ attorneys based much of their defense on impeaching Ernst’s credibility, calling a string of witnesses to testify that she was widely regarded by the community as an inveterate liar, but the jury found her believable enough, taking only a few hours to arrive at a verdict.

Anderson read portions of the defendants’ jailhouse letters, written in lewd rap-style couplets, from the bench Thursday after the letters were turned over to him by County Attorney Craig Halls.

Terril Calliham expressed rage toward both women and police in his letters, which included such lines as "When we get out, there’ll be hell to pay, we be shooting bitches all f-----g day." He also seemed to admit he had shot Eaton, at one point writing that he is "sitting back facing life, wouldn’t hesitate to do it twice."

Anderson termed the thinking of the unrepentant Calliham brothers as "clearly twisted — evil, not sick."

Remaining defiant to the end, however, Terril Calliham, 20, made a brief statement denying any involvement in Eaton’s brutal slaying.

"I haven’t shown any remorse because I didn’t do it," Calliham said, but Anderson replied that he was "absolutely persuaded" they were guilty of "an incomprehensible crime — a despicable act."

Jordan Calliham, looking far less baby-faced than when he was arrested last spring, made no statement before his sentence was imposed, but Anderson also read portions of his letter in which he referred to Ernst as a "snitch" and a "bitch" that took him out of his "hood," and made references to shooting police if they ever attempted to arrest him again.

"If I had any doubt (about their guilt) after the trial, I have no doubt after reading these letters," Anderson said. "Any consideration of parole will be a long time from now and only after they admit they killed James Eaton."

The judge predicted that once the Callihams’ appeals are exhausted, possibly in 10 or 15 years, they will finally accept responsibility for killing Eaton, but in the meantime they will continue to allow their parents to believe in their innocence.

"When all other options run out, they’ll admit they did it," he said.

BY DAVID GRANT LONG

During his killers’ trial, murder victim James Casey Eaton was portrayed as a small-time drug dealer who had stolen cocaine from defendant Jordan Calliham.

Misty Ernst, who had driven Eaton and the Calliham brothers to the scene of his death along Ucolo Road, testified that both Jordan Calliham and Eaton had been dealing drugs and Calliham believed Eaton had ripped him off.

Two of Jordan Calliham’s fellow inmates at the San Juan County Jail also testified that he had told them much the same thing, and, in early reports about the April 1999 killing, police attributed the motive to "a drug deal gone bad."

But, in a final note of irony, it turns out that Eaton stole nothing from Calliham, according to Dolores County Sheriff Jerry Martin.

Moreover, other than the testimony of Ernst, whose veracity was broadly challenged during the trial, there was no evidence presented to indicate that Eaton sold or used drugs.

"The investigation of Eaton’s death revealed that Eaton had been blamed by his killers for a theft of drugs," Martin wrote in a Feb. 3 letter to Utah’s Office of Crime Victim Reparations, "but in fact another person was responsible for the theft and admitted the theft later to police."

"James Eaton was found to be innocent of any wrongdoing on the night of his death," he said, noting that his department was not conducting any drug investigation that involved Eaton at the time of his death.

A relative explained Tuesday that Eaton’s grandparents, a retired couple with whom he was living, has been seeking assistance from the reparations office to cover his funeral expenses, but were initially turned down because the state maintained the slaying was "drug-related."

But police learned well before the trial that this was not the case.

Miller County, Utah, Deputy John Kimball, who was assisting in the investigation, informed Ernst during an interview a few weeks after the slaying that Eaton hadn’t taken anything from Calliham.

"Our information is James didn’t steal the dope," Kimball said, according to a transcript of the interview. "It’s kind of sad, really — they shot the wrong guy . . . ." Kimball refused to say who had actually taken the drugs, however.

"I can’t tell you that," he responded to Ernst’s inquiry. "I made a promise there."

Martin urged the reparations office to reconsider its decision.