Man given 56-year prison term in deadly Utah-Nevada crime rampage

ELKO — A man who authorities say went on a crime rampage that spanned two states and left a Utah couple dead has been sentenced to up to 56 years in Nevada prison for a kidnapping, robbery and botched carjacking at a casino.

Logan McFarland, 26, will have to serve at least 21 years before he’s eligible for parole.

He’s also expected to be returned to Utah’s Sanpete County where he formerly lived to face homicide charges in the slaying of a couple found dead in their Mount Pleasant home on Dec. 31, 2011.

That’s the same day police say McFarland and his 27-year-old girlfriend Angela Hill tried to carjack a woman outside a casino in West Wendover, Nevada, on the Utah line. Hill was sentenced in October to 30 years in prison after testifying against McFarland.

McFarland apologized during Wednesday’s sentencing in Elko before District Judge Nancy Porter.

“I know what I did is wrong,” McFarland said, according to the Elko Daily Free Press.

“I understand my mistakes. All I can do now is go to prison and make myself better, and that’s what I’m going to do. I’m sorry to the people I’ve hurt. I’ll understand if they can never forgive me for what I did, but I hope they can. I know it’s going to take me a long time to forgive myself,” he said.

Defense lawyer Gary Woodbury said before the sentencing that McFarland used to be a “good little Mormon boy,” until he got involved in methamphetamine, which clouded his judgment and drove him to make more poor choices.

Woodbury also said McFarland’s Nevada sentence likely will become irrelevant after his expected extradition to Utah. He confirmed Utah prosecutors are building a capital murder case against McFarland, although no formal homicide charges had been filed in the deaths of Leroy Fullwood, 70, and his wife, Ann, 69.

McFarland already faces a Utah burglary charge after police said they found him with guns and jewelry taken from the couple’s home in Mount Pleasant about 100 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Sanpete County Attorney Brody Keisel said in February that Utah authorities were waiting to initiate extradition proceedings until after McFarland had been sentenced in Nevada.

“At that point, there will be a litany of charges filed, including homicide,” he said.