Lemuel Prion, 61, was shot to death on August 27, 2023, during a property dispute in Ucolo near Monticello, Utah. Prion, a White man who had previously been wrongly convicted and later exonerated in an Arizona murder case, was involved in an altercation with 22-year-old Sage Jennings Daves of Dove Creek, Colorado. According to legal documents, the confrontation escalated when Prion allegedly grabbed a pitchfork, struck a truck, and made threats; Daves then fired seventeen shots, and Prion died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds.

Daves was arrested and charged with first-degree felony murder and three misdemeanor offenses; prosecutors considered capital murder but filed felony murder instead. He is being held in the San Juan County jail without bail. A four-day jury trial has been scheduled and a justification hearing will consider Daves’s claim of self-defense.

Did anyone in the Monticello or Dove Creek area know Prion or witness the dispute on August 27?