SIERRA NEWBOLD - 6 yo - West Jordan UT

Man suspected in death of W. Jordan girl to appear in court

Posted on: 8:57 am, July 31, 2012
by Meredith Forrest Kulwicki

The man accused of killing 6-year-old Sierra Newbold is due in a Salt Lake City courtroom Tuesday.

Terry Lee Black, 41, faces charges of aggravated murder, child kidnapping and child rape in Sierra’s death.

Prosecutors say Black broke into the Newbold home in West Jordan early on the morning of June 26. Sierra’s body was found later that morning in a canal nearby her home.

Police used video surveillance to connect Black to the crime, and officers caught a break when the suspect was arrested for stealing a car and robbing a bank three days later.

Investigators say Sierra’s DNA was still on Black’s clothing.

Black’s charges are all aggravated felonies, meaning he is eligible for the death penalty. The Salt Lake Count DA’s Office has not decided yet if they will pursue it.

http://fox13now.com/2012/07/31/man-suspected-in-death-of-w-jordan-girl-to-appear-in-court/

Witness saw suspect near where Newbold’s body found
West Jordan
» Police say witness, video and DNA link suspect to 6-year-old’s rape, murder.

By Janelle Stecklein and Jessica Miller
The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Jul 31 2012 06:39 pm
Updated 1 hour ago

About three hours after Sierra Newbold disappeared from her West Jordan home, a neighbor spotted a man hovering just yards away from what police would later determine was the 6-year-old girl’s watery grave.

The man, the witness recalled, was acting oddly at 5:30 a.m. that June 26 day. He was hunched over at the waist, holding his hands out in front of him and rocking back and forth about 60 yards from where Sierra Newbold’s pink pajama bottoms and white underwear were later found in a freshly burned field.

The homeowner told investigators that as he watched from his kitchen window, the man, who was dressed in a baggy shirt and long shorts, walked toward an abandoned truck, but eventually picked up a dark colored bicycle and began riding east on the roadway, across the canal where Sierra’s body was later found.

Five search warrants unsealed Tuesday in 3rd District Court in West Jordan painted a picture of West Jordan investigators’ hunt for Sierra’s alleged killer: 41-year-old Terry Lee Black.

The documents were released following a request to Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill last week by The Salt Lake Tribune.

West Jordan police began looking for Sierra after her mother’s 911 call at about 7:30 a.m. on June 26. Officers found the girl nude from the waist down, apparently shoved into a cluster of reeds in the West Jordan canal, a few blocks away from her home. A purple blanket was found floating nearby.

Nearly 100 yards away from Sierra’s partially clad body, officers found the girl’s pink SpongeBob pajama bottoms and white underwear.

Just hours before the grisly discovery — about 2:05 a.m. on June 26 — video surveillance at the Newbold home had captured a man dressed in a white T-shirt entering the home, near 2300 West 7000 South. The man entered through a sliding glass door that Sierra’s mother would later discover had not been locked, the warrants show.

Authorities have alleged that surveillance footage captured Black, who lived nearby and infrequently attended the same church as Sierra’s family, breaking into the home.

Sierra’s mother told detectives the girl had gone to sleep around 8:30 p.m. the night before her body was found, and the parents went to bed at about midnight.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54597960-78/black-sierra-warrants-police.html.csp

Utah man accused of killing Sierra Newbold charged in 2nd child sex abuse case
Crime » Man charged in June rape, murder of girl allegedly molested another girl years before.

By Erin Alberty, The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Aug 22 2012 03:24 pm • Updated 1 hour ago

The man accused of killing 6-year-old Sierra Newbold was arraigned Wednesday on charges he sexually abused another young girl.

Terry Lee Black, 41, is charged in 3rd District Court with two felony counts each of sexual abuse of a child and aggravated sexual abuse of a child stemming from allegations he molested a girl age 11 or 12 on two occasions between 2007 and 2009.

In the first alleged instance, the girl was attending a sleepover with members of Black’s family. Black entered the bedroom where the girl was sleeping and touched her breasts, put his hands down her underwear and forced her to touch his genitals, charges state.

The next summer, court documents claim, Black lured the same girl to his apartment and again put his hands down her pants.

During a brief court appearance on Wednesday, Black was assigned a public defender. His next court appearance on the sex charges will be Sept. 11 in West Jordan.

Black was charged last month with aggravated murder, child kidnapping and rape of a child in the case of Sierra Newbold. On June 26, Black allegedly abducted Sierra from her West Jordan home — about one block from his own home — and beat, raped and strangled her before throwing her into a nearby canal, where she drowned.

Three days later, Black was arrested on suspicion of an unrelated bank robbery. Investigators saw soot and debris on his clothing and hands that was similar to what was in a field where Sierra’s clothes were found. Lab results showed Black’s DNA matched DNA found on Sierra’s body, prosecutors said.

Black’s next court appearance in the murder case will be at a scheduling conference Oct. 9 in West Jordan. He is being held in the Salt Lake County jail in lieu of $2 million bail.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home3/54744363-200/black-sierra-girl-child.html.csp