1990 Tiede cabin murders

1990 Tiede cabin murders
1990 booking photos of the Tiede cabin murderers
Location	Oakley, Utah, U.S.
Date	December 22, 1990 (1990-12-22)
Attack type	Burglary, kidnapping, murder by shooting
Victims	Murdered Beth Potts, 76 Kaye Tiede, 49 Survived Rolf Tiede, 51 Linae Tiede, 20 Tricia Tiede, 16
Perpetrator	Von Lester Taylor Edward Steven Deli
Motive	Burglary
Verdict	Guilty on all counts
Convictions	Taylor: Aggravated murder Deli: Murder
Sentence	Taylor: Death Deli: Seven consecutive terms of life without parole

On December 22, 1990, at a mountain cabin in Oakley, Utah, two parolees, Von Lester Taylor (born March 26, 1965) and Edward Steven Deli (born December 29, 1968), broke into a remote cabin to commit burglary. The Tiede family, who had been staying at the cabin for the holiday season, were attacked by the pair after catching them red-handed. In the ensuing violence, two women, 76-year-old Beth Potts and her 49-year-old daughter Kaye Tiede, were shot and killed, while Kaye Tiede's 51-year-old husband Rolf Tiede was wounded in the shooting. The Tiedes' daughters, 16-year-old Tricia Tiede and 20-year-old Linae Tiede, were kidnapped by the pair, who both set the cabin on fire, and fled the scene. However, the men were ultimately captured by the police.

Both Taylor and Deli were charged with aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping in relation to the double murder. Taylor pleaded guilty to the aggravated murder charges and was sentenced to death, while Deli went to trial and was ultimately sentenced to life in prison, after jurors found him guilty of murder but not aggravated murder. Taylor, who had since selected lethal injection as his preferred method of execution, currently remains on death row awaiting execution for his part in the murders.

Double murder

On December 22, 1990, in Oakley, Utah, a family residing at their mountain cabin for the winter were attacked by two men, who killed two female members of the family and even abducted another two women of the same family.

On that day itself, Von Lester Taylor, who was out of prison on parole for aggravated burglary, left the halfway house where he had been staying. He then joined Edward Steven Deli in breaking into the Tiede family's cabin near Beaver Springs in Oakley, while the family was away in Salt Lake City. Once inside, Taylor called a friend and said he planned "to shoot some people". Not long after, 49-year-old Kaye Tiede arrived at the cabin with her mother, Beth Potts, and one of her two daughters. Taylor and Deli confronted them at gunpoint. Taylor shot and killed both Tiede and her mother.

Later that afternoon, Tiede's husband Rolf Tiede and their other daughter arrived. Taylor held Rolf at gunpoint, stole $105 from him, and then shot him in the face once or twice. He then attempted to set Rolf, the house, and the garage on fire after dousing him in gasoline, but Rolf survived the attack. After these gruesome acts, Taylor and Deli abducted the couple's daughters – 16-year-old Tricia and 20-year-old Linae – and fled the scene. The men were caught after a high-speed chase, the police arrested the pair, thus bringing the murders into revelation.

Trial proceedings

After their arrests, both 21-year-old Edward Deli and 25-year-old Von Taylor were charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping.

Trial of Von Taylor

Von Taylor
Born	Von Lester Taylor (1965-03-26) March 26, 1965 Utah, U.S.
Conviction	Aggravated murder
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	2
Date	December 22, 1990
Location	Oakley, Utah
Imprisoned at	Utah State Correctional Facility

Out of the two, Taylor chose to plead guilty to two counts of aggravated murder on May 2, 1991, in exchange for the remaining lesser charges against Taylor were dropped, although the prosecution still reserved their decision to seek the death penalty for Taylor.

On May 22, 1991, the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty for Taylor after more than four hours of deliberation. During his sentencing by Judge Frank Noel, Taylor confirmed to the court that he preferred to be executed by lethal injection; death row inmates in Utah were allowed to choose either firing squad or lethal injection.

Trial of Edward Deli

Edward Deli
Born	Edward Steven Deli (1968-12-29) December 29, 1968 Utah, U.S.
Conviction	Murder
Criminal penalty	Seven consecutive life sentences without parole
Details
Victims	2
Date	December 22, 1990
Location	Oakley, Utah
Imprisoned at	Central Utah Correctional Facility

On the other hand, Deli pleaded not guilty and went to trial before a Summit County jury for murdering Kaye Tiede and Beth Potts. The defence argued that Deli was not guilty of murder despite his involvement in the burglary, stating that the shooter throughout the crime was solely Taylor. During the trial itself, ballistic experts testified that the bullets recovered at the scene showed that the victims had been shot with two guns, one a .44-caliber handgun and another a .38-caliber gun, and eyewitnesses testified that Deli had wielded a .44-caliber gun at the victims prior to the shooting. The prosecution argued in return that whether or not Deli shot the victims, he was equally guilty of aggravated murder and he deserved the death penalty, and he was part of a joint operation with Taylor to perpetuate the killings and burglary.

On May 14, 1991, the jury found Deli guilty of murder, after they failed to reach an unanimous vote to convict Deli of aggravated murder, which is punishable by death in Utah unlike regular murder. According to reports, 11 out of the 12 jurors agreed that Deli was guilty of first-degree murder, but the 12th and final juror refused to find Deli guilty as charged, which reportedly caused the rest of the jury to be enraged at his decision, and to avoid the possibility of a hung jury and mistrial declaration, the jury chose to convict Deli of lesser charges of second-degree murder. Due to the jury's decision, Deli was spared the death sentence, as the death penalty applied only to aggravated murder offences while the maximum punishment for murder was life imprisonment but not death.

The unnamed juror, who was a businessman, emphasized in an interview that he had no compassion for Deli and personally supported the death penalty, but he defended his decision to not find Deli guilty of aggravated murder, stating that there was a "reasonable doubt" that Deli had actually killed any of the victims, and spoke highly of the prosecution and his fellow jury members despite the negativity he faced for his decision.

On June 3, 1991, Third District Judge Frank Noel sentenced Deli to seven consecutive terms of life imprisonment (five years to life) for all nine felony offences, and with the possibility of parole after a minimum time of 62 years, his earliest possible release date would be in 2053. However, Judge Noel recommended that Deli's life sentences should not carry the possibility of parole, ensuring that he would spend the rest of his natural life in prison and never be released, a decision welcomed by the surviving kin of the victims.

On August 21, 1991, Mike Sibbett, a representative of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, announced that per the decision of the board, Deli would be serving life without the possibility of parole on account of the heinous nature of the double murder.

Appellate process

Deli's appeal

In March 1993, the Utah Supreme Court heard an appeal from Edward Deli, who appealed to shorten his life sentences, and he stated that the multiple consecutive life terms would not serve any purpose of rehabilitation or parole in his case, and deprived him of his chance to be reformed and released from prison, and hence asked for a shorter sentence.

On October 15, 1993, the Utah Supreme Court dismissed Deli's appeal against his sentence.

Taylor's appeals

In 1995, an evidential hearing was conducted before the original trial court, as directed by the Utah Supreme Court, after Von Taylor appealed and argued that he was represented by ineffective legal counsel during his trial for murder and petitioned for a re-trial. The original trial judge, Frank Noel, rejected Taylor's claims of ineffective counsel and thus dismissed his appeal against conviction and petition for a re-trial.

On October 24, 1997, the Utah Supreme Court rejected Von Taylor's appeal against his death sentence and murder conviction.

On October 5, 1998, Taylor's appeal was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In March 2004, Taylor had exhausted all his regular avenues of appeal at state-level, and his appellate process was transitioned to the federal courts.

In January 2007, the Utah Supreme Court rejected a post-conviction petition from Taylor, who claimed that he was unfairly sentenced for his role in the double murder. The court found that the sentencing was fair, even if the jury heard his newly-discovered evidence of alleged brain damage as the evidence itself would not have precluded him from the death penalty.

In 2012, another appeal from Taylor was dismissed by the Utah Supreme Court.

In a 2016 federal appeal, Taylor argued against his conviction and sentence, claiming that he was innocent and he never fired any of the lethal shots that claimed the lives of Kaye Tiede and Beth Potts. On March 12, 2020, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell of a Utah federal district court allowed the appeal of Taylor, and overturned his death sentence and murder conviction, after she found there was reasonable doubt that Taylor had shot any of the victims.

On July 30, 2021, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals restored Taylor's murder conviction and death sentence. The court ruled that even if Taylor had never shot any of the victims, he was still liable for a conviction of first-degree murder and death sentence because under Utah law, accomplices were considered to be equally guilty like the main perpetrators and Taylor cannot be considered innocent due to his close association with the double murder.

On June 13, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Taylor's final regular appeal, thus officiating Taylor's eligibility for execution on a later date to be determined.

In 2023, a fifth appeal was submitted by Taylor to a state district court in Utah.

Current status

After the end of his sentencing, Von Taylor is incarcerated on death row at the Utah State Correctional Facility as of 2025.

As of 2025, Edward Deli is currently serving his life sentence at the Central Utah Correctional Facility.

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the cabin murders, Rolf Tiede, Kaye Tiede's husband and one of the survivors of the slayings, filed a civil lawsuit and sued the state for damages due to their failure to act and intervene when both Taylor and Deli escaped from their halfway house and killed his wife and mother-in-law. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed in 1996 by the Utah Supreme Court due to a state law that granted the government immunity from any lawsuit pertaining to such situations.

In 2011, 48 Hours, a crime documentary series produced by CBS News, released an episode covering the 1990 cabin murders, with the two daughters of Kaye Tiede, Tricia and Linae, appearing on-screen to speak about their traumatic experiences from the slayings. According to the surviving victims, they remained mystified by the fact that despite the equal culpability shared by both Deli and Taylor in the crimes, Taylor was handed the death penalty after pleading guilty to first-degree murder while Deli was given life imprisonment for lesser charges of second-degree murder after claiming trial for first-degree murder, and some anti-death penalty advocates referred the case to demonstrate the arbitrary application of capital punishment in cases like the Tiede cabin murders due to the unequal sentencing outcome of the case.

See also

• Capital punishment in Utah
• List of death row inmates in Utah