TREMONTON, Utah — The alleged perpetrator of the Aug. 17, 2025, shootings that killed two Tremonton-Garland Police officers made his first in-person court appearance Wednesday as prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, presented evidence in the case.

Ryan Michael Bate, 33, is charged with 19 total state felonies, including aggravated murder, for opening fire on police who responded to a domestic violence call at his home. The shots killed Officer Eric Estrada and Sgt. Lee Sorensen, and injured Box Elder County Sheriff Deputy Mike Allred, his K-9 Azula and neighbor Randy Kidman.

The courtroom was nearly full throughout the nearly nine-hour proceedings Wednesday, with family members of the victims and the defendant, members of the public and media in attendance. Many could be heard crying throughout the day. Bate himself spent most of Wednesday’s hearing hunched over with his face obscured, periodically wiping his face with tissues.

In his opening statement, Deputy Box Elder County Attorney Blair Wardle argued that the evidence would show Bate carried out a “planned and premeditated” ambush after spending hours threatening to kill responding officers.

Reading from recorded statements later introduced as evidence, Wardle quoted Bate allegedly saying, “Wait till the cops show up and I start shooting every one of them,” and, “I’m killing every one of them.”

“These are just a few of the statements that the defendant, Ryan Michael Bate, said shortly before he murdered Sgt. Lee Sorensen and Officer Eric Estrada and then tried to murder Deputy Mike Allred, police service canine Azula and a neighbor, Randy Kidman, who the defendant believed was another officer,” Wardle said.

According to the prosecution, Bate and his then-wife, who identified as a victim in this case, had argued throughout Aug. 17, after he again accused her of infidelity years earlier. Wardle alleged the argument escalated into physical violence, with Bate headbutting his wife, slamming her head into a door and pinning her to a bed before she sought help.

The defense, represented by attorneys Jonathan Nish and Mary Corporon, declined to make an opening statement.

The state’s first witness, retired Weber County Attorney’s Office Chief Criminal Investigator Steve Zaccardi, testified Tremonton-Garland Police Chief Dustin Cordova asked him to lead the investigation after the shootings.

One of the central pieces of evidence was a recorded interview Zaccardi and his partner Seve Haney conducted with Bate’s wife shortly after the shootings.

In the interview, Bate’s wife described an argument that intensified throughout the day as her husband became increasingly intoxicated. She told investigators he began gathering firearms inside the home, made repeated threats to kill responding police officers and assembled Molotov cocktails using gasoline and Mike’s Hard Lemonade bottles.

She also described making an initial call to dispatch before hanging up and later watching Bate make additional hang-up calls himself.

Prosecutors also played several audio recordings Bate’s wife made during the afternoon and evening.

When Bate’s wife tells him she will send responding officers away, prosecutors say Bate responds, “I’m not going to send them away ... send them away in caskets,” followed by, “I want ‘em here now. I’m killing every one of ‘em.”

Zaccardi testified that after Sgt. Sorensen responded to the last hang-up 911 call and spoke separately with both Bate and his wife, he left because he had no evidence that a crime had occurred.

As Sorenson drove away, prosecutors said Bate retrieved a rifle and fired a shot toward the patrol vehicle. Sorensen turned around, called for backup and waited near North Park Elementary School, unaware Bate had moved into what was described as “a sniper position, ready for his ambush.”

Dash camera and body camera footage shown during the hearing appeared to corroborate investigators’ timeline, to which Zaccardi testified.

The footage showed Sorensen returning to the area, walking into the intersection. Bate’s wife said she tried to warn Sorensen and yelled, “He’s got a gun!” She said she heard another shot, heard Sorensen say “He shot me,” and then saw him fall to the ground. She then fled into the shadows, as she was worried that she and the child she was holding would get shot.

Moments later, Officer Estrada arrived, ran toward Sorensen and was likewise fatally shot.

Medical examiner reports admitted into evidence concluded Sorensen died from a gunshot wound to the chest and Estrada from a gunshot wound to the head. Both deaths were ruled homicides.

Deputy Mike Allred then arrived in a marked K-9 vehicle and immediately came under gunfire. Prosecutors said bullets penetrated the vehicle, showering Allred with bullet fragments and shattered glass and sending fragments into the cage occupied by police service dog Azula.

Investigators also introduced a written statement from neighbor Randy Kidman, who reported driving toward what he believed were fireworks before a bullet passed through the driver’s side of his Ford Explorer, “a vehicle with a striking resemblance to a police vehicle,” according to Wardle, striking him with glass and bullet fragments as well.

Body camera footage from Officer Estrada, according to testimony, showed Bate approaching and standing over the fallen officers while carrying a scoped rifle.

Additional footage and witness statements documented neighbors Sterling and Courtney Johnson confronting Bate after the shootings. Sterling Johnson ultimately disarmed and restrained Bate until Sgt. Shane Bragger of the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office arrived.

Body camera footage from Bragger, played in court, captured Bate repeatedly saying, “I’m done, I’m done, I’m done,” and, “I’m sorry, I just couldn’t go to jail.”

The state’s final witness Wednesday, Weber County crime scene investigator Sandy Grogan, walked the court through dozens of crime scene photographs documenting shell casings, firearms, Molotov cocktails, bullet damage and other physical evidence recovered from the scene.

Grogan testified investigators recovered six spent rifle casings near Bate’s driveway, a loaded .22-caliber revolver, a rifle with its safety disengaged, three Molotov cocktails and a bucket containing gasoline in the garage. Photographs also documented bullet damage to Deputy Allred’s K-9 vehicle and injuries to Allred’s face consistent with shattered glass and bullet fragments.

According to witnesses and prosecutors, there were three children present during the crime: a 16-year-old, a 2-year-old and a 1-year-old. Court records show Bate’s wife filed for divorce on Sept. 16, 2025.

The prosecution gave final arguments in the murder case Thursday morning, and the defense plans to respond in writing after receiving a transcript of Wednesday’s hearing. That is expected to be filed in the next six weeks.

Bate is also facing separate charges from 2024 for a domestic violence incident at the same house. While initially dismissed, the Box Elder County Attorney’s Office refiled a few days after Sorenson and Estrada’s deaths. The prosecution and defense heard evidence for that case Thursday afternoon.