This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
American Fork • One of the two men accused of killing a former BYU professor during a 2009 burglary has accepted a plea deal from prosecutors and will testify against his co-defendant if that case goes to trial.
Benjamin David Rettig, 23, pleaded guilty Thursday morning in 4th District Court to aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors have agreed not to seek the death penalty and drop felony counts of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated burglary against Rettig.
Rettig and 24-year-old Martin Cameron Bond were charged with breaking into the Payson home of retired BYU professor Kay Mortensen in November 2009, stealing the man's gun collection and then slitting his throat.
"It breaks your heart to think he could do something so horrible," Mortensen's widow, Darla, said of Rettig, following Thursday's hearing.
Darla Mortensen also said she wished the plea deal would not have included the possibility of parole.
In court, Utah County prosecutor Tim Taylor detailed the events of Nov. 16, 2009.
Rettig and Bond drove from Vernal with a plan to steal Kay Mortensen's cache of weapons. Wearing ski masks and latex gloves, Rettig held Kay Mortensen at gunpoint while Bond collected the weapons from a bunker behind the home, according to the account.
Then the men forced Mortensen into an upstairs bathroom. With Rettig's gun still trained on Mortensen, Bond slashed the professor's throat, Taylor said.
After the slaying, Mortensen's son and daughter-in-law, Roger and Pamela Mortensen, knocked on the door.
Bond and Rettig tied up the couple and Bond pulled out a knife, Taylor said. Rettig stepped in front of Bond and told him not to kill Roger and Pamela Mortensen, according to prosecutors.
Police later arrested Roger and Pamela Mortensen in connection with the slaying. The couple spent five months in jail before a tip led police to Bond and Rettig, who were living in Vernal.
Detectives recovered at least 14 of Mortensen's weapons from a site where the two men buried them on the night of the slaying, prosecutors said.
Both Rettig and Bond admitted to being in Mortensen's home in Payson, according to charging documents, but provided police with different accounts of the slaying.
Bond told police Rettig slit Mortensen's throat and stabbed him in the neck while making a "statement related to a gladiator," according to court documents.
On Thursday, however, Taylor said he believed Bond was the one who carried out the slaying.
"We think [Rettig] was more of an aiding and abetting type of capacity," Taylor said. "With everything that we've looked at, we feel comfortable we're going after the person who actually committed the homicide."
At a July 19 sentencing, prosecutors will recommend Rettig serve 25 years to life, with the possibility of parole.
Rettig has agreed to testify if subpoenaed in Bond's case. A preliminary hearing in that case is set for July. Prosecutors said they may seek the death penalty.