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By Canadian Press

Ex-con, wife charged in carjack killing of Chinese student

Nov 16, 2017 | 3:18 PM

SALT LAKE CITY — An ex-convict accused of gunning down a University of Utah student with a weapon stolen from a slain Colorado man was charged with aggravated murder, robbery and a dozen other counts on Thursday.

Austin Boutain, 24, hatched the deadly carjacking plot with his wife, who is also accused in the Colorado murder case, prosecutors said in court documents.

They watched cars for hours as Kathleen Boutain pointed out potential victims at a canyon near campus on Oct. 30. She eventually became frustrated at his reluctance to attack someone during daylight, called him a coward and the couple fought.

He pistol-whipped her and she walked down to the university to report him, authorities said.

Kathleen Boutain was charged with six counts, including criminal solicitation and theft.

After she left, he attacked 23-year-old student Chenwei Guo and tried to drag Guo’s female friend up a nearby canyon, police said. She ran away, narrowly escaping shots he fired at her, and called police.

No attorneys were listed for the Boutains on Thursday.

The couple were drifters who fled to Utah after cutting the throat of Mitchell Ingle, 63, and stealing his guns in Golden, Colorado, authorities have said.

They met Ingle a couple times before they started drinking and smoking marijuana at his trailer home Oct. 27, police said. Austin Boutain got angry when Ingle made sexual comments and the pair decided he would kill the older man so they could take his trailer, according to Colorado court documents.

Austin Boutain cut his host’s throat before the couple grabbed three guns and drove off in his pickup truck, headed for Utah, Colorado police said.

Ingle’s body was found in his home a few days later, after Guo’s death. Police say the husband and wife both were both wearing his clothes when they were arrested.

Austin Boutain has a rap sheet that includes drug, car theft and weapons charges dating back to his days as a juvenile. He was released from an Alabama prison this spring, but skipped parole in Wisconsin a few months later and wound up living under a bridge with his wife in Golden, Colorado, authorities said.

In Salt Lake City, they lived around a homeless shelter for a couple days before setting up camp in Red Butte Canyon, where they hatched the plot to find a car, force the driver inside and make their way to Tennessee, the Thursday charges state. They planned to use the victim’s money to fund the trip before killing them.

Austin Boutain used one of the guns stolen from Ingle to kill Guo, a computer-science student from China, police said. He told police he knocked on Guo’s car window shortly after his wife walked away to ask if he’d seen her, but when Guo didn’t answer he “became enraged” and fired at the car until the gun was empty.

Guo died of a gunshot wound to the neck.

The killing set off a manhunt in the foothills near Salt Lake City, but Austin Boutain managed to escape by crawling on his belly through the thick underbrush and dropping into a well-to-do neighbourhood on Salt Lake City’s north side, police said.

He was caught after an alert librarian spotted him at the downtown library.

Lindsay Whitehurst, The Associated Press



by Canadian Press