Man pleads not guilty by insanity in stabbing death of his father

LOGAN — Clayton Shaw, a man accused of killing his father and leaving the body near a parking lot in Logan Canyon, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Thursday.

Shaw, 33, was charged Sept. 30 with murder, a first-degree felony, three days after the body of 77-year-old Dennis Shaw was found by the Franklin Basin snowmobile parking lot.

Defense attorney Mike McGinnis, who represents Shaw, told KSL.com that they essentially submitted three different pleas Thursday — a standard not-guilty plea, a not guilty by diminished capacity, and not guilty by reason of insanity.

It’s a way of “keeping all the cards on the table” moving forward, McGinnis said, and a notice of intent for these claims is required under Utah law.

A review hearing to determine Clayton Shaw’s competency is scheduled for Feb. 12. in 1st District Court. Competency to stand trial is a separate issue from the process of determining diminished mental capacity or insanity at the time of the alleged offense, according to the code.

Dennis Shaw, a longtime Logan resident, was found dead about 25 miles from the home he has lived in for over two decades, court documents say, without his car or the dog he was never apart from.

There was a conspicuous lack of blood, and there were drag marks at the site. The man appeared “to have suffered from stab wounds to the chest from a small, bladed object,” according to charging documents.

Employees of Dennis Shaw’s company, who had not been able to contact him, told investigators that they were worried about the behavior of his son, Clayton Shaw, and his “declining” mental health, charges say. Detectives watching Dennis Shaw’s house on Sumac Drive the day they found the body saw Clayton Shaw pull up around 3 p.m., knock on the door, get back in his car, and drive away.

They pulled him over and found he was carrying a “fixed blade, double-edge knife” on him “consistent with the shape and size of the wounds that were observed on (Dennis Shaw’s) body,” according to court documents.

Dennis Shaw’s dog was found in the car with Clayton Shaw, though employees told police the victim was “never without his dog, day or night, and would never allow Clayton or anyone else to take the dog.”

In Clayton Shaw’s car, investigators found droplets that tested positive as human blood, an empty bottle of cleaner, and despite the interior being “extremely dirty and cluttered,” everything in the back was pushed to the side to clear a large space in the center, according to a police booking affidavit.

Investigators noted during an interview after the arrest that Clayton Shaw had “cuts on his thumb and fingers that appeared to be fairly fresh and did not appear to have started to heal,” the affidavit states.

Past mental health concerns

Police say the 33-year-old’s mental health had allegedly been the source of various encounters in the proceeding months.

He had threatened to kill Dennis Shaw with a homemade hatchet, according to employees, and was served an eviction by the Cache County sheriff of a property controlled by Dennis Shaw, court documents show. Two incidents in July were recorded by Logan and Cache County police of alleged domestic violence and threats from Clayton Shaw directed at his father, according to the affidavit.

On Sept. 6, Clayton Shaw called officers “claiming he had located human remains and dried-up skin on his property.” The officer wrote that “it appeared to be tree bark” and did not find human remains.

The younger Shaw’s roommate called the police just over a week later, on Sept. 15, according to court documents, saying “she was scared of Clayton and did not know what to do and wanted to know her options.” Clayton is “known to have paranoia and is known to carry a firearm,” she told police.

Despite the charges levied against him, Clayton Shaw petitioned the court in November to be the representative of his father’s estate. He was positioned to receive proceeds of the business income and portions of the victim’s property holdings, cars, furniture, “extensive amounts of gold, silver, and guns, and a safe full of cash,” court documents say.

The court has ordered a temporary disqualification to inherit pending the outcome of the criminal case.