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Utah

Woman faces trial in fatal stabbing

By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
OGDEN – In a few words, Monika Ann Dilmaghanian confessed to the
murder of her boyfriend.
"I killed Nathan Daniel Harris," she said in a written statement, a
Weber County sheriff’s deputy testified Tuesday.
Dilmaghanian, 34, was bound over for trial on charges of first-degree
felony murder and domestic violence in the presence of a child, a
third-degree felony, after a preliminary hearing here in 2nd District Court.
Her defense attorney, Bernie Allen, indicated there may be a resolution in
the case within a couple of weeks.
Prosecutors said on April 6, Dilmaghanian and Harris, of Eagle
Mountain, were enjoying an outing at a campground near Causey Reservoir with
her three children when they began arguing about a pagan ceremony.
"The argument started over the cleansing of a knife (ceremony)," Weber
County Sheriff’s detective Dewain Sorensen said on the witness stand.
The couple are pagans, prosecutors said. Dilmaghanian wore a small
dagger around her neck with a handle made of an antler. During the argument,
police said Dilmaghanian demanded they leave the campground.
Prosecutors based much of their case on interviews with Dilmaghanian’s
three children, ages 10, 9 and 8.
"The victim walked up the hill, put some items in the car and went
back to try and assist her," Sorensen testified. "He said, ‘Stop. I want to
talk to you.’ She said, ‘Get away from me."’
It was then, prosecutors said, that Dilmaghanian grabbed the knife
from around her neck and stabbed Harris in the chest.
"’I just turned around and stabbed him,"’ Sorensen said that
Dilmaghanian told officers.
Allen said his client told police she didn’t know she had stabbed
Harris until the blade came out of his chest. Authorities said that as
Harris dropped to his knees and his head slumped down, Dilmaghanian
continued to yell at him to give her the car keys. Realizing what happened,
she loaded up the children in the car and drove off.
Dilmaghanian flagged down a U.S. Forest Service officer, declaring
that she had just stabbed her boyfriend and needed help, Sorensen testified.
She handed the officer the bloody dagger.
Harris’ stab wound was only 3 1/2 inches deep, but the state medical
examiner said it penetrated the heart.
"This injury would produce death within a matter of minutes," Dr. Todd
Grey testified.
As Grey described in clinical detail the graphic nature of the
stabbing, Dilmaghanian broke down crying. A bailiff brought her a tissue
that she used to wipe her nose and dab her eyes.
Dilmaghanian, who remains in the Weber County Jail without bail, is
scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 1.