TOOELE, Utah — A Grantsville man pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing his mother and three of his siblings when he was 16 years old in early 2020.
Colin Jeffrey Haynie, who is now 19, was in the Tooele courtroom as his lawyer read on his behalf that he pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted aggravated murder.
Haynie was accused of shooting and killing his 52-year-old mother, Consuelo Alejandra Haynie, along with 15-year-old Alexis Haynie, 14-year-old Matthew Haynie and 12-year-old Milan Haynie.
Haynie answered in the affirmative when asked to confirm by the judge that he was waiving his right to a preliminary hearing while entering the guilty pleas.
“We got a great outcome, it was a good outcome for us and we’re happy with it,” said Tooele County Attorney Scott Broadhead.
Based on forensic evidence and information gathered from witnesses, police said Haynie killed Consuelo and Milan around 1 p.m. on January 17, followed by Alexis and Matthew as they each returned home later that afternoon.
The attempted aggravated murder charge stems from Haynie also shooting his father in the leg when returned home the same evening.
Broadhead said Haynie has yet to say why he killed his family.
“He has not revealed that at this point to anybody publicly. Hopefully, he’ll reveal the mystery so to speak at his sentencing hearing.”
The judge has scheduled Haynie's sentencing for December 7. He was tried as an adult because of the severity of the charges, but since he was a juvenile at the time, the death penalty was not an option.
“If he had been an adult, this could have been a death penalty case,” said Broadhead. “But because he was under the age of 18 at the time of the offense, it’s 25 years-to-life by statute.”
Initially, there were also five firearms charges, but those have been dismissed.
“They were lesser charges and also they probably would have very little impact on what the ultimate sentence would be,” Broadhead added.
To a community that has been living with this tragedy for all these months, Broadhead said he hopes this brings some relief to the people there.
“Hopefully that justice was done and that there will be some measure of closure, but when you suffer these kinds of traumatic events, I don’t know the legal system delivers closure. Hope it’s a step in that direction.”
