TOOELE, Utah — Colin Jeffery “CJ” Haynie was sentenced Wednesday to four consecutive terms of 25 years to life for shooting his mother and three siblings when he was 16.
The judge sentenced Haynie, 19, to the maximum sentence of 25 years to life for each of the five counts after pleading guilty to the crimes. Four of the counts running consecutively, which is 100 years. The last count running concurrent with the others.
Haynie was just 16 years old in 2020 when he shot and killed his mother Consuelo Alejandra Haynie, 52, his two sisters, Alexis, 15, and Milan 12, and his brother Matthew, 14. Haynie then shot his dad, Colin, but hit him in the leg. His dad then wrestled the gun away.
Haynie shot each of them as they returned home.
“Why? It’s the question that’s been haunting everybody. Why? Well, Jeffrey says I was angry at my father. He said dealing with his father made him anxious, so what does Jeffrey do he decided to kill them all,” said prosecutor Scott Broadhead, as he asked the judge to give Haynie the maximum sentence. “This was not a single incident of mass murder. This wasn’t walking into a school and unloading your gun this was planned, it was methodical it was four separate incidents over a five-hour period.”
That’s why Broadhead said Haynie doesn’t deserve to see the light of day again.
“This is not a rehabilitation case. It’s a punishment case. Someone who murders four people, including three children that he knew and cared about, should never be free,” he said.
In the days following the shootings, Colin Haynie released a statement through his attorney.
“As you can imagine, this loss is almost unbearable,” it stated. “Colin has asked me to express his and the family’s profound appreciation for the support given by friends, extended community, law enforcement, and health care providers. Colin was also wounded on Friday, but he expects to recover fully from those injuries.”
Haynie’s attorney pleaded for mercy, asking the judge to run the sentences concurrently, which would put all five counts at 25 years to life. He played a video of Haynie’s graduation showing how Haynie is a changed person.
“The juvenile has demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation sufficient for a chance at life not behind the prison walls,” said Richard Van Wagoner, Haynie’s attorney.
In a surprising message and reaction, Haynie’s own brother, Danny, who was away at college during the shooting, said all of this could have been avoided had his brother gotten the help he needed, saying his dad, Colin was partially to blame for that.
“He was robbed by not getting proper help. While [Jeffrey] may not blame Colin [his dad] anymore for anything. I do because this could have been prevented. This is something I kept silent for too long,” said Danny Haynie via a conference call in court.
Danny pointed to an incident about a month before the shootings where Jeffrey had a conversation with his mom and said some pretty “dark” things.
“This was clearly a dark enough of a red flag to act on. It wasn’t acted on. The irony now is Jeffrey has ended up in jail, and my family is dead,” Danny said.
Clean cut, well groomed, and dressed in a suit, Jeffrey Haynie did speak before sentencing, saying he hopes people can forgive his actions.
“I can ask for forgiveness for my crimes and my mistakes. I want to make sure that people understand that my mistakes in the past are something I will not do again and I have learned from what I have done,” Haynie said, who showed no emotion at all during the entire court proceedings, even when gruesome pictures of his family members where shown of their murders.
