Utah Supreme Court weighs who bears burden in 35-year-old abuse case and whether remand is needed

The Utah Supreme Court heard argument Tuesday in State v. Smith over whether a district court erred by sending to a jury a statute-of-limitations question in a 35‑year‑old child‑abuse prosecution and who must prove timeliness under the statute that governs late-filed cases.

Defense counsel Tiara Taliaferro told the justices that the trial judge “could not find by a preponderance of the evidence” that the prosecution was not barred and therefore should have dismissed the charges rather than send the question to the jury. Taliaferro said the evidentiary record before the district court and this court already contains the same material and that remand would only allow the state another chance to add evidence: “We had some inference of a report. We are lucky in the sense that that woman said I was pulled out in seventh grade,” she said, arguing the record still did not show by a preponderance that a report to law enforcement had not been made.

The state, represented by Michael Palumbo, agreed that the district court should not have sent the statute‑of‑limitations question to the jury but urged a…