Teen Accused of Filming Utah Girl's Suicide Can Stand Trial: '[It's] Like Getting Away With Murder'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: People

Teen Accused of Filming Utah Girl's Suicide Can Stand Trial: '[It's] Like Getting Away With Murder'

CHRISTINE PELISEK February 21, 2018 04:03 PM

A Utah man who allegedly helped a 16-year-old girl hang herself and then filmed the suicide was found mentally competent to stand trial on a murder charge, PEOPLE confirms.

Judge James Brady made the ruling in the Fourth District Court in Provo on Tuesday in the case of 18-year-old Tyerell Przybycien.

Przybycien was also found competent to stand trial on the misdemeanor charge of failure to report the finding of a dead human body. The judge’s decision came after defense attorneys asked for a mental evaluation to be conducted on Przybycien.

. . .

Prosecutors allege that Przybycien purchased the rope used in the suicide and tied the noose for Jchandra Brown, who hanged herself in May 2017.

Read more: http://people.com/crime/utah-girl-hanged-herself-teen-stand-trial/

[geardaddy]

1. Wouldn't he actually be aiding and abetting the suicide

since she bought the rope and tied the noose?

[The_jackalope]

2. Yes, he would. I know from experience.

My late wife had ovarian cancer, was determined to retain control over her own death, and deeply distrusted the medical bureaucracy. Even though medical assistance in dying is available where we live, she didn't want to expose herself to the system by asking for it. So she was determined to do it herself, with the time and method of her own choosing. I loved her more than I've ever loved anyone, so I offered to help. I did the research on techniques; I bought a book that described them; I tried to arrange for helium, but couldn't get pure helium without leaving too large a paper trail. She couldn't go the pills and alcohol route because the cancer had destroyed her stomach. So her choice was ligature compression of the carotid arteries using a silk scarf and a wooden spoon.

I had to make a hard choice about balancing the love I had for her and the legal risk I faced. Love won out over common sense, as it so often does, and I agreed to stay with her and keep an eye on the proceedings. What followed that night was the hardest five minutes of my entire life. The procedure didn't work as advertised, and rather than rapid unconsciousness it turned into self-strangulation with all that implies. For five minutes I sat with her as her eyes bulged and her lips turned blue, but her consciousness didn't even flicker. I took a steely grip on myself, reminded myself of my promises, and kept my hands at my sides. But I was never so relieved as when she finally shook her head and indicated that I should cut her free.

The next morning she applied for a medically assisted death and was accepted. As I sat with her two weeks later while it was done legally, I thought repeatedly of what a pickle I'd be in if she had succeeded - or even worse, what a pickle we'd both be in if she had partially succeeded and wound up with brain damage. The penalties here for aiding and abetting are severe whether or not the attempt is successful, and she wouldn't have been eligible for a legal death due to her brain injury.

My gesture may have been noble, but it could have been catastrophic. But it was a risk I accepted at the time...
Love can make us do some really foolish things, even a 67 yo geezer like me.

[geardaddy]

3. I'm so sorry you and your wife had to go through that.

Thank you for sharing this.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

4. Absolutely no sympathy for this sociopath.

Nothing but sympathy for the young girl and her family.

I hope he gets to stay in prison for the rest of his life, so he can contemplate his fascination with death without hurting someone else.