Ron Lafferty’s suicide attempt

Ron Lafferty’s suicide attempt in the Utah County Jail interrupted the brothers’ preparations for a joint murder trial and changed its course. Dan Lafferty found him unconscious in an adjacent cell; although Ron had stopped breathing for an estimated fifteen minutes, paramedics restored his heartbeat. After two days in a coma, he regained consciousness, and the court delayed his case while he recovered and underwent psychiatric evaluation.

The Attempt in Jail

On December 29, five days before the trial was scheduled to begin in Provo, Utah, Lieutenant Jerry Scott, commander of the Utah County Jail, took Dan from his cell to ask him questions. When Dan returned, he found Ron suspended from a towel rack by a T-shirt and unconscious in the neighboring cell. Dan alerted staff through the intercom. Scott and two deputies attempted resuscitation, but could not detect a pulse; when paramedics arrived, Ron appeared to be dead.

The account places the attempt immediately before the brothers’ scheduled joint trial. They were facing charges arising from the murders of Brenda Lafferty and her baby, Erica Lafferty. The evidence describes the timing and immediate response, but does not establish why Ron attempted suicide.

Rescue and Recovery

Despite having stopped breathing for an estimated fifteen minutes, Ron’s heart began beating again after the paramedics’ efforts. He was put on a respirator in the intensive care unit of Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. He remained comatose for two days, then regained consciousness. Dan attributed his brother’s recovery to divine intervention; that attribution is presented as Dan’s interpretation, not as a medical finding.

The recovery did not resolve the question of Ron’s fitness to stand trial. The court allowed him time to recover and ordered extensive psychiatric evaluation, including an assessment of possible brain damage. The episode therefore moved from an emergency inside the jail to a question that would shape the legal proceedings.

Effect on the Trials

Ron had been expected to stand trial alongside Dan three days after emerging from the coma. Judge J. Robert Bullock instead ordered that Dan be tried alone as scheduled, giving Ron additional time to recover and be evaluated. Dan’s trial proceeded without his brother; he was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and received two life sentences after the jury could not agree on a death sentence.

Ron’s own trial began almost four months later, in April 1985. By then, psychiatrists and psychologists had determined that he was mentally competent. His court-appointed attorneys hoped to argue that mental illness had affected his actions and to seek reduced charges, but Ron refused that approach because he regarded it as an admission of guilt. The attempt thus preceded, but did not prevent, a separate trial in which his mental competence and his refusal of a mental-illness defense became significant issues.

Significance and Limits of the Account

The episode marks a sharp change in the brothers’ legal paths: they entered jail with a joint trial imminent, but Ron’s medical crisis separated their proceedings. His survival made recovery and evaluation possible; the resulting delay allowed the court to assess his competence before his case went forward.

The account also distinguishes between different kinds of explanation. Dan gave the recovery a religious meaning, while the court’s response was procedural and medical: postpone Ron’s trial, assess possible brain damage, and determine whether he could stand trial. The evidence does not connect the suicide attempt to a stated motive, and it does not treat Ron’s later competency finding as an explanation of the attempt itself.