Shortly after 6:30 a.m. on September 29, 2001, the body of 50-year-old Lee Lundskog was found behind a 7-Eleven store in the Rose Park neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah. A customer saw the body, reported it to the store clerk, and 7-Eleven security called 911.
Lundskog had head injuries suffered during a savage beating. A bloodied concrete fence panel was found nearby, although police did not collect it as evidence. The state medical examiner concluded that Lundskog had been stomped to death.
Lundskog suffered from schizophrenia and lived nearby in an adult living facility. He was given a daily allowance of about $45 in spending money. His daily routine involved walking to the 7-Eleven, where he bought cigarettes and a Big Gulp. He usually sat outside, smoking and sipping his drink afterward.
Police found bloody footprints that led away from the body toward the store, but then changed direction and headed toward the nearby Kingswood Apartments. The footprints were about 12 inches long, and the word “Reebok” was visible in one footprint.
Steven Butcher approached investigating officers and said he had been at the store earlier that morning and had seen Lundskog lying on the ground behind the store. Butcher said that at approximately 5:44 a.m., he left his apartment complex, which was directly west of the store, intending to go to the 7-Eleven. As he approached the concrete fence that divided the apartment complex and the 7-Eleven property, he saw through missing concrete fence panels what he believed to be a Black man, who was passed out and snoring, lying on the grass. Butcher said that it was so dark that, although he was standing only three feet from Lundskog’s body, it was extremely difficult to see anything, and he could not see that Lundskog was actually a white male covered in blood.
Rather than cross through the fence, Butcher said he walked north along the fence line until he reached the sidewalk and entered the 7-Eleven’s parking lot. He said he bought a drink and headed back to his apartment. Along the way he stopped at the missing panels in the concrete fence to see if the man he had seen was still breathing. Butcher said that after he heard the man “snoring” again, he returned to his apartment.
The next day, Detective Jim Prior received a call from Robert Mellen, who had been at the 7-Eleven the morning Lundskog was killed. Mellen said he had seen a Black man with “nappy hair” in the 7-Eleven wearing white tennis shoes, long shorts, and a white shirt. Although he did not report seeing anything unusual, Mellen told Prior that the man made him feel uncomfortable. At the end of the brief interview, Prior took down Mellen’s contact information and told him he would contact him in the future if they needed additional help.
That afternoon, Jose Lopez contacted police and said that at about 5 a.m. on the morning of the murder, he had stopped at the 7-Eleven on his way to work. He said he saw Lundskog sitting outside the store’s front door.
Lopez said he went into the store, bought a hot dog and a drink, and returned to his vehicle in the store’s parking lot. Lopez claimed that approximately five to ten minutes after he left the store, he saw what he believed to be a man kicking “cans of some sort.” When asked to describe the person, Lopez said that he was a Black man, 23 or 24 years old with a skinny build, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, wearing long pants and a white or gray pull-over shirt.
During the interview, when Lopez’s answers became somewhat confusing, Prior attempted to ask him several clarifying questions. Instead of answering the questions, Lopez repeatedly asked to see the surveillance video to refresh his memory. Prior allowed Lopez to watch a section of the video from approximately 5:15-5:30 a.m. As they watched the video, Lopez identified a Black man who entered the 7-Eleven at 5:20 a.m. as the man he had seen commit the attack. That man would later be identified as 20-year-old Adrian Gordon.
Lopez said that his cousin, Gustavo Diaz-Hernandez, had also been at the 7-Eleven that morning and that he too had witnessed the attack. Following the interview, Lopez returned to the apartment he shared with Diaz-Hernandez and told Diaz-Hernandez the story he had just told to the police and about the surveillance video he had seen. He also described what he had seen on the video and told Diaz-Hernandez which man he had identified on the video.
The following day at approximately 5:11 a.m., Lopez returned to the 7-Eleven store. While Lopez was in the store, another customer, a Black man, came to the checkout counter. Lopez and the other man both left the store, but Lopez returned and told the store clerk that the man who just left was the man who committed the attack on Lundskog.
The clerk called 911, the police were dispatched to the 7-Eleven, and the surveillance tape was collected and placed into evidence. That same day, officers printed still photos of the new alleged perpetrator identified by Lopez on the 7-Eleven surveillance tape.
Separately, later that day at about noon, an anonymous female 911 caller reported that the suspect from the 7-Eleven homicide was at the nearby Kingswood Apartments in Apartment 13.
Aware that the bloody footprints leaving the homicide scene pointed toward the Kingswood Apartments, the police went to the complex. When police arrived at Apartment 13, they discovered the man depicted in the surveillance footage, identified as A.B. They arrested A.B. on an outstanding warrant and took him to a vacant lot where they examined his shoes, photographed and fingerprinted him, and questioned him about the murder. A.B. denied involvement in the crime. None of this evidence would be disclosed to the defense.
The investigation of A.B. ended after Prior recognized that the Black man that Lopez had initially pointed out on the video was 20-year-old Adrian Gordon, whom Prior knew from a previous encounter.
Prior then released to the media the portion of the surveillance video showing Gordon. He did not release the portion which showed A.B.
The next day, October 2, 2001, Prior interviewed Diaz-Hernandez, a Mexican citizen who spoke little English. Prior relied on an interpreter to relay questions to Diaz-Hernandez and to understand his responses.
Relying on the story he knew Lopez had told the police, Diaz-Hernandez said that on the morning of September 29, 2001, he left his home at 5:30 a.m. and walked for approximately five to six minutes before arriving at the 7-Eleven parking lot. Diaz-Hernandez claimed that as he walked along a sidewalk, directly north of the store’s property, he heard strange noises, which he described as someone kicking garbage cans. Diaz-Hernandez said that at first, he believed an employee was taking out the garbage. As he approached the parking lot, however, he claimed he saw two men fighting, one of whom was lying on the ground.
Diaz-Hernandez said that he continued walking by the store, but stopped and looked again towards the attack. From this point, approximately 75 feet away, Diaz-Hernandez said he saw a man kicking a man several times in the head. Diaz-Hernandez claimed that at one point, the attacker looked up at him, but it was too dark to see his face.
Diaz-Hernandez said he kept walking until he passed the store. At this point, 142 feet away from Lundskog, and with a dumpster and brick wall obstructing his view of the crime scene, he maintained that he watched the attacker kick the victim in the head. He said he then crossed the street and hid under two trees approximately 290 feet away from where Lundskog’s body was ultimately discovered.
Diaz-Hernandez said that from this spot, he saw the attacker walk away from the victim and enter the 7-Eleven. Despite the distance and the darkness, Diaz-Hernandez said he was able to see a small amount of blood on the attacker’s right shoe as the attacker approached the store. He also claimed to have seen the attacker well enough to describe him as a thin male, approximately 150 to 155 pounds, with a bald shaven head. He also said that the attacker was wearing blue shorts, white shoes, white socks, and a white shirt. He did not identify the attacker’s race.
Diaz-Hernandez said that several minutes after the attacker entered the store, the attacker left the store carrying two bags. Diaz-Hernandez claimed the attacker approached a vehicle which had recently entered the store’s parking lot. According to Diaz-Hernandez, the attacker opened the vehicle’s rear passenger door, put his bags inside, and then returned to the victim and kicked him in the head another seven to eight times.
Following this second attack, the attacker then walked north, away from the store, and then headed west. Diaz-Hernandez said the car followed behind him. Diaz-Hernandez said the vehicle was a blue or gray Nissan or Chevrolet that had four doors.
Diaz-Hernandez said that after he watched the attacker walk away, Josefina Silva, Diaz-Hernandez’s friend from work, arrived at the scene and picked him up for work. Diaz-Hernandez stated that he clearly remembered it being 5:40 a.m. He and Silva then drove for approximately 10 minutes until they arrived at their work where they clocked in at 5:55 a.m.
Asked if he remembered seeing Lopez at the 7-Eleven on the morning of the attack, Diaz-Hernandez said that Lopez had left the apartment earlier in the morning and was not at the 7-Eleven when he arrived.
Police then presented Diaz-Hernandez with a photo line-up, including a photo of Gordon, and asked him if he could identify the man that he had seen at the 7-Eleven. Diaz-Hernandez was unable to make an identification. Diaz-Hernandez was never shown a photo of A.B.
Asked if the attacker had used the telephone inside the store, Diaz-Hernandez said he had not seen the attacker once he entered the store. When police asked Diaz-Hernandez if he believed he could identify the attacker in the future, Diaz-Hernandez, knowing that Lopez had identified an individual on the surveillance video, repeatedly asked to see that video.
At the conclusion of the interview, Prior again asked Diaz-Hernandez what time he had left his apartment on the morning of the attack. Diaz-Hernandez responded that he had left at 5:30 a.m. and that it took him five to six minutes to walk to the store. Based on that estimate, Diaz-Hernandez would have arrived at the 7-Eleven at approximately 5:35-5:36 a.m., three to four minutes after the surveillance video showed Gordon had left the store.
After interviewing Diaz-Hernandez, Prior met Mellen at his home at 8:30 p.m. to conduct a second interview that was not recorded. According to Prior, Mellen said that he had gone to the 7-Eleven on his way to work on the morning of September 29, 2001. While he was inside the store, a Black man entered the store and asked the clerk for a straw. As Mellen exited the store and entered his vehicle, he claimed that the Black man had stared at him, so he looked away. Mellen said that, as he was pulling out of the 7-Eleven’s parking lot, he saw the Black man waving his hand towards Lundskog. When shown a photographic line-up, Mellen identified Gordon as the man he had seen inside the 7-Eleven.
On October 3, 2001, after the media reported he was connected to the crime, Gordon and his girlfriend, Denise Quintana, appeared voluntarily at the Salt Lake City Police Department for interviews. Upon their arrival they were taken into custody.
Detectives first interviewed Quintana, who said that on the morning of September 29, 2001, she was at a party when she received several phone calls from Gordon asking her for a ride home. She left the party and picked him up at the 7-Eleven in a gold two-door Honda Accord. She said that when she arrived at the store, Gordon got in. She said that he gave her a kiss, acting completely normal. They then drove home and went to sleep. Although she could not remember what Gordon was wearing on the morning of September 29, 2001, she told officers that she had recently washed all of his dirty clothing, which was now in a white bag in the couple’s bedroom. She said she did not see any blood on Gordon’s clothing or on his shoes.
Quintana also explained that Gordon recently had injured his hand and could not drive.
Police later confirmed that Gordon had previously undergone surgery for his injury, which limited his use of his dominant right hand by preventing him from making a fist and limiting his range of motion.
Officers then told Quintana that they were charging Gordon with “capital homicide” and that she could be charged as an accessory for picking him up. Quintana replied that based on Gordon’s behavior when she picked him up and in the days prior to the interview, she did not believe he was the man they were looking for. At the end of the interview, Quintana consented to a search of her home. They also took her into custody on an outstanding misdemeanor warrant.
Detective Prior then interviewed Gordon. He showed Gordon a still photo from the 7-Eleven’s surveillance video and asked him to identify the person in the photo. Gordon immediately identified himself. Prior then falsely told Gordon that three eyewitnesses had seen him stomp a man to death behind the store. Gordon denied any involvement.
He told the police that on the morning of the murder, he was dropped off at the store, went inside, and called Quintana, who later picked him up. When asked what he was carrying, he told detectives that he was carrying a white Burlington Coat Factory shopping bag. Asked what he was wearing, Gordon said he was unsure, but that he thought he had worn a blue or white T-shirt, khaki pants, and a pair of gray Nike shoes with black stripes. He said that when Quintana arrived, he got in the car, and they went home and to bed.
A search of Quintana’s home turned up nothing that could be connected to the crime. The police also searched Quintana’s car, but found no evidence connecting Gordon to the murder.
On October 3, Gordon was charged with aggravated robbery and aggravated murder. At about that time, Lopez recanted his story and told police that he had never been at the 7-Eleven when the attack occurred.
Prior to his trial, Gordon’s lawyers requested all exculpatory information from the prosecution. The prosecution failed to disclose the evidence that two separate witnesses identified A.B. as the killer.
In December 2001, less than three months after the crime, Gordon went to trial on the charge of aggravated murder in the Third Judicial Court for Salt Lake County. The prosecution had dismissed the aggravated robbery charge.
Gordon waived a jury trial and consented to have the case decided by Judge Leslie Lewis.
The prosecution presented security video from the 7-Eleven that showed Lundskog leaving the store with his drinks at 4:50 a.m. He then sat on the front curb drinking his soda and smoking. Gordon was seen entering the store at 5:20 a.m., when he used the store’s telephone to call his girlfriend. He then went outside. At 5:25 a.m., Gordon entered the store for a second time and asked the clerk for a straw. He then exited the store. Lundskog was seen on the surveillance video passing the front of the store at 5:27 a.m.
At 5:31 a.m., Gordon re-entered the store for a third time to make a second call. The prosecution contended that Gordon had killed Lundskog during those few minutes while he was outside the store. However, the store clerk, who was a couple feet from Gordon when he used the phone said he was acting normally, was not out of breath, and did not appear to have any blood on his light-colored clothing.
Diaz-Hernandez testified, and, although he had not identified Gordon in the photographic lineup and had not identified him at the preliminary hearing, he now identified Gordon as the man he saw attacking Lundskog.
Mellen testified that, as he was leaving the store parking lot, he saw Gordon waving at Lundskog. However, the surveillance video showed Mellen backing out of the parking lot and heading south on Redwood Road at 5:26:09 a.m. Lundskog was seen walking north, in the direction of where Gordon was waiting for his ride, but not until 5:27:20 a.m., more than a minute after Mellen had left the 7-Eleven.
Prior testified and falsely claimed that A.B. was never a suspect in the case.
Separately, Prior testified about his notes taken during the autopsy. He said that the state medical examiner, Dr. Todd Grey, found a “puncturing wound” above Lundskog’s right eye. In addition, the notes said that Dr. Grey found the injuries to Lundskog were characteristic of some type of instrument with a “more rough & uneven edge & surface.” However, when Dr. Grey testified, he said the injuries were consistent with stomping. He denied ever saying that Lundskog had a “puncturing” wound.
The defense presented no witnesses or evidence. On December 20, 2001, Judge Lewis convicted Gordon of aggravated murder. On April 4, 2002, Judge Lewis sentenced Gordon to 5 years to life in prison. The Utah Supreme Court upheld the conviction and sentence in January 2004.
Later that year, the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center (RMIC) began investigating Gordon’s case. In the years following, RMIC consulted with a medical examiner and blood pattern expert, and both concluded that the bloodied cement fence panel appeared to have been involved in the attack. RMIC’s investigation revealed that police never collected the bloodied cement fence panel found next to Lundskog’s head. RMIC concluded that the cement fence panel was a piece of potentially exculpatory evidence.
RMIC contended that as a result, Gordon had been prevented from challenging the prosecution’s theory about the nature of the crime and identifying the actual perpetrator through DNA testing. Based on this investigation, RMIC brought a destruction of evidence claim and a claim that the prosecution had failed to disclose exculpatory evidence in 2009. The claims were dismissed five years later in May 2014. The dismissal was upheld on appeal.
Meanwhile in 2013, Gordon had filed a request for DNA testing. That was dismissed in January 2014 on the grounds that he could have requested it prior to his trial. Gordon appealed, the dismissal was reversed, and the case was remanded to the trial court.
In 2017, the court ordered the State to perform DNA tests on the remaining physical evidence including black sunglasses found next to Lundskog that did not belong to him. Tests were also conducted on the inside of the pockets of Lundskog’s jumpsuit; a swab taken from the cement fence panel found next to Lundskog’s head; two cigarette packs and one lighter found next to Lundskog’s body; and the pockets of Lundskog’s windbreaker. The results of the DNA testing either excluded Gordon or were inconclusive.
In 2018, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office established a Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU).
In 2019, Gordon’s attorney, Jennifer Springer, received information from a new witness that A.B. had been a suspect in the murder of Lundskog and that he had been investigated by police. Shortly thereafter, Springer met with A.B., who confirmed he had been a suspect. A.B. said that police interviewed him, photographed him and his footwear, placed him under arrest, and informed him that homicide detectives would follow up with him. Records requests to the Salt Lake City police department regarding A.B. confirmed he was a suspect. Police had filed the two witness reports and related investigative documents under two separate case numbers, neither of which was the homicide case number.
In 2020, Gordon filed a third post-conviction relief motion, again arguing the prosecution had withheld exculpatory evidence related to A.B.
In 2021, RMIC asked the CIU to review Gordon’s case. In particular, RMIC noted that Prior had failed to fully investigate A.B. and failed to disclose the evidence pointing to A.B. as a suspect.
After an initial review of the State’s original case file and the materials submitted to the CIU by RMIC, the CIU Unit Chief determined that there was credible and verifiable evidence presented that brought into question the integrity of Gordon’s conviction and sentence. Based on this information and review, the Unit Chief presented the case to the CIU panel for further investigation.
In October 2021, RMIC also filed a petition with the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole requesting that Gordon’s original hearing date be moved up and that he be paroled. Gordon’s petition was granted, and on February 27, 2024, Gordon was released from prison on parole.
In March 2024, RMIC and co-counsel from the law firms of Dorsey & Whitney LLP and Mayer Brown LLP amended Gordon’s 2020 petition and filed a 71-page petition seeking to vacate Gordon’s conviction. The amended petition cited even more exculpatory evidence relating to the investigation of A.B. that had not been disclosed to the defense. It also included a false testimony claim related to Prior and a destruction of evidence claim for additional evidence that was collected related to the investigation of A.B., but that police had since destroyed.
Meanwhile, the CIU panel reviewed the case in several meetings after the initial presentation by the Unit Chief and in September of 2024 reached a unanimous decision to recommend that Gordon’s conviction be vacated.
The panel concluded that “the evidence given by the only witness who identifies Mr. Gordon as Mr. Lundskog’s assailant was unreliable, thus compromising the integrity of his conviction.”
The panel also concluded, “Further, a preponderance of the evidence…supports our conclusion that the failure of the investigating officers to follow-up on a potential suspect or explain why he was eliminated as a suspect, along with the failure to timely advise the prosecutors and defense as well as [RMIC] of the existence of a second suspect, settling instead on convicting Mr. Gordon as the singular focus of their efforts, adversely affected Mr. Gordon’s defense and post-conviction relief efforts, and compromised the integrity of Mr. Gordon’s conviction…Given the weaknesses we believe exist in the investigation, the failure to disclose potentially significant information to the defense, and what we believe to be the unreliable testimony of the State’s principal witness, we conclude by a preponderance of the evidence we reviewed, that on balance, the circumstantial evidence considered by the judge in finding Mr. Gordon guilty of the crimes with which he was charged does not support the conviction in Mr. Gordon’s case. It, therefore, lacks integrity.”
Based upon these findings, on December 22, 2025, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill filed a petition to vacate Gordon’s conviction. “The presentation of independent, newly-discovered evidence of an alternative suspect in Mr. Lundskog’s murder provides clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Gordon’s conviction and sentence lack integrity,” the petition said. On January 7, 2026, Judge Amber Mettler granted the petition, vacated Gordon’s conviction, and ordered a new trial.
On April 16, 2026, Judge Mettler granted a joint motion by the prosecution and RMIC to dismiss the case.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 05-18-2026
