A jury will decide the fate of a man accused of murdering a Sandy mother while robbing her home.
Attorneys will present their closing arguments this morning in the murder trial of Cody Alan Reece. He is charged with aggravated murder in the shooting of Magda Aleman on July 13, 2010. Investigators say she was a victim of a burglary gone bad, and that she had defensive wounds as if she tried to fight off her attacker.
On the day of the murder, Aleman's husband returned to their Sandy home to find his wife dead on the couch with a gunshot wound to the head.
The same day, Cody Allen Reece was arrested in connection with a burglary at a home in the same neighborhood.
Homeowner Julene Back, said at the time, "He was out of control. He was yelling. I could never understand a word he was saying. I described it to my friends at work - he was like a wild animal."
Her brother, Eric Sharp, was in the home with her. He said, "I looked around the corner and he whacked me in the right side of my face. Then he got me in my ribs, started hitting and kicking me."
Back says she somehow persuaded Reece to leave her home. That's when neighbors, hearing screams, came over to help. They followed Reece to the next block and then held him until police got there.
"It is very weird to think that maybe he just killed someone shortly before coming to my house," Back said. "It makes me want to know why. Why my house?"
After the arrest, detectives took his T-shirt for evidence. Investigators sent it to the state crime lab for DNA testing and it came back positive for Aleman's blood.
According to charging documents, Reece admitted to police that he washed her blood off of his hands and got rid of the gun used to kill her.
Aleman left behind a husband and three children who were 9, 7 and 3 at the time of her murder.
If Reece is found guilty of her murder, he could face the death penalty.
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