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Farmington • November preliminary hearings have been set for Nathan and Stephanie Sloop, who are charged with the May 2010 slaying of 4-year-old Ethan Stacy.
A three-day preliminary hearing for Nathan Sloop, who was the boy's new stepfather, is set to begin Nov. 1 in 2nd District Court.
A preliminary hearing for Stephanie Sloop, the boy's mother, is to begin Nov. 15.
Meanwhile, prosecutors and defense attorneys will continue hashing out patient-physician privilege issues regarding records of communications between the murder defendants and their therapists.
Prosecutors want some conversations between the Sloops and Ogden psychologist Rob Pramann admitted as evidence in the case. Second District Judge Glen Dawson will decide whether the conversations were confidential after a hearing next month. The judge has also scheduled a July hearing to discuss whether materials seized from Nathan Sloop's cell at the Davis County Jail might be admissible as evidence.
Nathan Sloop, 32, and Stephanie Sloop, 28, are both charged with aggravated murder in connection with the boy's death.
Charging documents allege that the Layton couple engaged in multiple acts of "severe abuse" between April 29 and May 8, which led to Ethan's death, including "beatings, burning, drugging, isolating, malnourishing, leaving the child alone and unattended while suffering, and refusing to seek vital life-sustaining medical attention."
The couple — who said they left the injured boy in a locked bedroom while they got married May 6 — reported Ethan missing to police on Mother's Day, May 10, after discovering the boy was dead.
But after a 12-hour search, police say the couple confessed to burying the boy near Powder Mountain Ski Resort in Weber County.
Nathan Sloop, who led officers to the body on May 11, told police he used a hammer to disfigure the boy's face and teeth in an effort to hinder identification.
Dog food was sprinkled on the boy's unmarked grave.