SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – Steve Powell won a second round of pre-trial motions when a judge ruled his diary entries would not be admissible during the trial.
Many of those writings showed Powell sexually infatuated with Susan Cox Powell who disappeared in 2009.
Other journal entries included his obsession with young girls and pretty women.
The ruling came after a jury was seated late Tuesday.
Opening arguments will begin Wednesday morning in the trial of Steven Powell.
A fourteen member jury was selected late Tuesday to hear the voyeurism case against Powell, the father of Josh Powell. The jury is evenly divided with seven men and seven women chosen. Two will be considered alternates. The jury consists
of 12 white and 2 African Americans.
The jury selection ends two days of intense questioning by both the prosecution and defense.
Meanwhile outside the ears of the prospective jurors, a judge also ruled on key pieces of evidence the prosecution was hoping to introduce during the trial.
Primarily, several entries in a journal written by Steven Powell were at the heart of pre-trial motions.. Those journals were seized last August whenWest Valley City police along with Pierce County sheriff deputies executed a search warrant at Steven Powell’s Washington home. It was during the search that police found evidence that led to the voyeurism charges.
The journal writings contained many sexually explicit references Powell had with Susan Cox Powell, Josh Powell’s wife who disappeared in 2009. She is presumed dead and her husband was considered a person of interest in her disappearance before he killed himself and their two sons.
In his writings found in court documents, Powell admitted that he’d been “nearly out of control sexually my entire life.” He also admitted to being a “voyeur and recording women of every age …taking photos of pretty girls in short skirts, beautiful women of every age.
Powell also wrote that he had “been stalking Susan and had been taking secret video of her. He writes that he “is a voyeur and she (Susan) is an exhibitionist and they are a perfect match.”
Those writings could have been damaging to Steven Powell if allowed in court but the judge refused to allow many of the references of Susan Powell to be introduced during the trial.
“They have no relevance to proving voyeurism,” said Judge Ronald Culpepper.
He said the entries could make the jury biased against Steven Powell.
The ruling clears the way for opening arguments to begin Wednesday morning.
