Skip to main content
← Court and Legal Proceedings

Five Nominees for the Fourth District Vacancy

Screenshot of a Hoodline article dated April 13 2025 about five nominees for a Fourth District Court vacancy, with names underlined in red and a purple watermark down the centre

What This Image Shows

A screenshot of a Hoodline article dated April 13, 2025, headlined about five potential nominees vying for a Fourth District Court vacancy ahead of Judge Lunnen's retirement in Utah. Red digital underlines mark the five names and the sentence about the retirement. A vertical purple watermark carrying the handles @BasedSamParker and @SamParkerSenate runs down the centre.

The article states that Judge Robert Lunnen's retirement was "set, effective August 1," and that the Fourth District Judicial Nominating Commission had narrowed the field to five: Von Christiansen, County Attorney of Beaver County; Joshua Esplin, Assistant Director and Trial Attorney with the Utah County Public Defenders Association; Tony Graf, then Deputy County Attorney for Davis County and Volunteer Judge Pro Tempore at Salt Lake City Justice Court; Samuel Pead, an Assistant United States Attorney; and Ryan Stack, Deputy County Attorney in Summit County.

The researcher saved this to establish a date. As of April 13, 2025, five months before the assassination, the vacancy that would eventually receive this case was public, named, and had a shortlist. That is a documented timeline fact and nothing more; a judicial vacancy being reported in April says nothing about anything that happened in September. See Judge Tony Graf and Judge Robert Lunnen.

More In This Cluster