In the quiet landscape of Monticello, Utah, the life of 61-year-old Lemuel Prion came to a violent end on August 27, 2023. A White male, Prion was a man with a complex past, having previously been wrongly convicted and later exonerated for a murder in Arizona. On that fateful Sunday, however, a dispute over property in the small community of Ucolo would rewrite his final chapter. An altercation erupted between Prion and a younger man, 22-year-old Sage Jennings Daves of Dove Creek, Colorado.
The disagreement escalated quickly, culminating in a fatal confrontation that left Prion with multiple gunshot wounds.
According to accounts that would later emerge in legal documents, Daves claimed the shooting was an act of self-defense. He alleged that Prion had made terrifying threats, vowing to "burn family alive." The situation intensified when, as Daves described it, Prion grabbed a pitchfork and lunged at him, striking his truck. In response, Daves fired his weapon, admitting to shooting Prion seventeen times. The hail of bullets proved fatal, and Lemuel Prion died at the scene of the encounter. His death marked another chapter of violence in a life that had already been touched by the darker aspects of the justice system.
Following the incident, Sage Jennings Daves was arrested and charged with first-degree felony murder. While prosecutors initially considered the more severe charge of capital murder, they ultimately pursued the felony murder charge along with three misdemeanor offenses. Daves has been held in the San Juan County jail without bail as the legal proceedings move forward. A four-day jury trial has been scheduled, and a justification hearing will also be held to examine his claim of self-defense. The tragic death of Lemuel Prion, a man who had once been on death row for a crime he did not commit, now sits at the center of a new legal battle, leaving a community to grapple with the violent end to a turbulent life.
