This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
After awaiting extradition from Nevada for nearly eight months, the man charged with killing a Mount Pleasant couple three years ago is back in Utah to stand trial on aggravated murder charges.
Logan McFarland, 27, was charged last May in 6th District Court with two counts of aggravated murder — a death penalty-eligible offense — for the December 2011 slaying of 70-year-old Leroy Fullwood and his 69-year-old wife, Dorothy Ann Fullwood.
McFarland also is charged with one count of first-degree felony aggravated burglary and one count of first-degree felony aggravated robbery, along with second-degree felony counts of burglary of a dwelling and theft of a firearm.
McFarland was booked into the Sanpete County jail Friday evening, according to Sanpete County Attorney Brody Keisel.
His first court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 11.
Utah authorities have been waiting to prosecute the murder case against McFarland until he could be extradited from Nevada after being sentenced to prison for up to 56 years for crimes that took place there.
McFarland has long been the suspect of the double murder, but Keisel said in May that he wanted to wait for Nevada authorities to adjudicate their case against McFarland and his girlfriend, 28-year-old Angela Hill, also known as Angela Atwood. The charges were filed May 22, 2014, a day after McFarland was sentenced for a Nevada crime spree.
Hill is charged with the same counts as McFarland, minus the homicide charges. She has not yet been extradited to Utah, according to the county attorney's office, and a court appearance has not been scheduled.
When charges were first filed in Nevada in the days after the couple was arrested, Hill waived extradition to Utah. McFarland, however, told a judge he planned to fight extradition.
Keisel said Monday that while McFarland did initially oppose being transported to Utah, he did not contest the validity of a recent executive agreement between the governors of both states that allowed the defendant to be moved to Utah.
On Dec. 31, 2011 — the same day the Fullwoods were found dead in their home — police say McFarland and Hill tried to carjack a woman's car outside a casino in West Wendover, Nev. The victim fought off Hill and sped away, but was shot and wounded in the head.
After the botched carjacking, police say the couple fled from West Wendover to Wells, Nev., in a Saturn Ion they had stolen in Utah.
In Wells, they stole a Volkswagen Jetta, which they used to evade capture during a high-speed chase on Interstate 80.
McFarland and Hill were captured by authorities Jan. 3, 2012, after being spotted walking in the Nevada desert by a rancher checking on cattle from an airplane.
A Nevada jury found McFarland guilty of six counts stemming from the carjacking attempt during a February 2014 trial.
Hill pleaded guilty to charges of burglary, kidnapping and robbery relating to the carjacking and was sentenced to up to 30 years in prison in October 2013.
In an arrest affidavit filed in 6th District Court that was briefly made public in January 2012 but was later sealed, police alleged that on Dec. 29, 2012, McFarland drove around Mount Pleasant looking for a home to burglarize.
McFarland apparently selected the Fullwood home at random and, late Dec. 29 or early Dec. 30, had friends drop him off on a road behind the residence, according to the affidavit. It was then only a short walk through sagebrush to reach the home.
What exactly happened inside the home has not been made public, but the arrest affidavit says the home was ransacked, the contents of cupboards and closets "strewn" around the home. By the time McFarland left, the Fullwoods were dead from gunshot wounds.
On Dec. 30, McFarland allegedly called a relative and told him that they needed to talk because "a 'mission' had gone south," according to a probable cause statement filed in court. Police allege that McFarland told the relative that he had "dispatched lives" in Sanpete County.
Twitter: @jm_miller