Law&Crime Sidebar - Utah Woman SHOCKS Court After Killing Parents

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

Mia Bailey, 30, accepted a plea deal in Utah court on Thursday, agreeing to plead guilty to murder and aggravated assault charges, with the stipulation that she was mentally unwell at the time she committed her crimes. In June 2024, Bailey admitted to police that she'd killed her parents, Joseph and Gail Bailey, and had tried to shoot her brother. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber and litigator Rich Schoenstein break down the unexpected announcement.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Have you been forced into entering this plea here today? No, Your Honor. The Utah woman who gunned down her own parents in cold blood and apparently said she would do it again, well, she has officially entered a guilty plea. But the plea has an interesting aspect to it. We're going to dig into this breaking news with attorney Rich Schoenstein, who can help break down what we can expect next.

Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. By the way, is this just not a true example of how we cover all different kinds of crime and legal stories here on Sidebar? And look, not everybody has the ability to do what we do here, to try to do a deep dive on these stories. And one of the reasons that we can keep on doing this is because of the amazing support we get from our sponsor. are Morgan and Morgan. This is America's largest personal injury law firm. This is a firm with over a thousand attorneys who have recovered. Get this, $25 billion for more than 500,000 clients. In fact, in the past few months alone, a client in Florida received $12 million

when insurance offered just $350,000. Out in Pennsylvania, another client was awarded $26 million. That is 40 times the insurer's offer. And Morgan and Morgan, they make it easy to fight for what you deserve. You can start a claim from your phone. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash lc sidebar. You can click the link below or you can scan the QR code on screen. 30-year-old Mia Bailey was expected to be in a St. George County, Utah courtroom on Thursday for a status hearing in a brutal double murder case. But when she got there, that is when the public learned that actually she was going to be entering a guilty plea. So now she stares down a prison sentence that is decades long.

And when we first told you about Bailey last year, this is when she was taken into custody after an overnight manhunt in Washington City, Utah. She had fled a horrific crime scene at her family's home, which she herself had caused, okay? She admitted to police that she shot and killed both of her parents, Joseph and Gail Bailey, and even tried to kill her brother, but thankfully wasn't successful. Bailey even reportedly told police, I would do it again. I hate them.

Now, at the time, the big part of this case, the one that got of a lot of news attention was the fact that Bailey had been in the process of transitioning to a female. She had legally changed her assigned gender to female, changed her name to Mia, and there was confusion surrounding her appearance, the clothes she might be wearing, what her hair might look like. So that made the search for her even more challenging, even more difficult. Now, we're going to dig into the specific claims against Bailey. But first, the big news here, Bailey pleaded guilty in open court on November 6th. Ms. Bailey, a plea agreement has been reached between you and the state of Utah. Have you been forced into entering this plea here today? No, Your Honor.

So as part of an agreement with the state, Bailey pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated murder and one count of aggravated assault, as well as being mentally ill at the time she committed the crime. so pleading guilty and mentally ill, which is an option in Utah. We're going to talk about it. She had originally been facing 11 felony counts and now this big update. So to help me break down the latest details, I want to welcome back on to Sidebar trial attorney, Rich Schoenstein. Rich, so good to see you. Thank you so much for taking the time.

Okay, talk to me about what your understanding is here because Utah's a little different, right? It's not like the traditional insanity defense as we've seen. When someone is pleading guilty and mentally ill, what does that mean? Well, Jesse, as I understand it, and I don't practice in Utah, so I can only go by what I've read. It is a guilty plea to a murder count, so she can be sentenced up to life imprisonment without an opportunity for parole. But with insanity can be considered by the judge in issuing a sentence. It is one of the factors that will be considered. And that's what I think this guilty plea is all about.

It's all about giving the judge a few things to possibly determine that this person could get out of prison someday. And it's been about a year and a half since the murders. And, you know, it's been reported that these plea negotiations were going on for quite some time. We know that the legal process can take. months and months and months, and it's really particularly hard on the victim's families, and also, by the way, defendants families, too. So it can seem like, you know, it's taking way too long to get some sort of resolution. But when you hear that back and forth, when you think about this case, does that timeline make sense to you? Yeah, I don't have a problem with that

timeline. I mean, it is a complex case. I know sometimes these things seem really straightforward. I mean, she essentially has admitted the crimes. They obviously got the right person. Why can't we just get to a conviction and move this on? But this case involved the possibility of an insanity defense and some other complicating issues. And so it had to move along at a certain time. And I gather there were settlement discussions. I don't know how long those discussions have been going on between the prosecutors and the defense.

But that was going on in the background, too, that may have slowed things down. I don't have a problem with the timeline. And it's not even the heinous nature of the crime. It's what Bailey has been saying that you can kind of get a sense of why this might not be so shocking and whether she will get some sort of treatment as a result of this in addition to prison time

or whether she has to be committed to a state hospital for a period of time. I mean, because she's facing 25 years to life without parole on each of those murder charges. and her sentence is scheduled for December 19th. Now, the prosecution had earlier announced that the death penalty was not going to be not going to be on the table for this case.

Here's the part that I mentioned, okay? According to local outlet KSLTV, Bailey did something that I haven't seen, okay, actually wrote a letter to the Utah Supreme Court herself asking for that to be reversed. She apparently Rich wanted the death penalty, and she wanted to fire her attorney. What did you make of that?

Well, I mean, that's troubling conduct by a defendant. You know, somebody who wants to be published, somebody who theoretically wants to be put to death. That would concern me a lot in my own determination about whether this person is mentally fit for trial. So I didn't know exactly what to make of it. Yeah. By the way, when somebody wants to fire their attorney,

generally speaking, how much does the court allow that, right? Because they do, they're entitled to an attorney, but not a choice of their attorney, right? How does that work? Right. So we see a lot of these cases where people get court-appointed attorneys and the relationship doesn't work out for one reason or another. And as a general matter, you're entitled to counsel and you're also entitled to have some choice in that process. You can't be stuck with a lawyer that you fundamentally don't trust. And like the first time you want to fire a lawyer, I think for the most part, you can do that and they can appoint somebody else. But sometimes we see in these cases there's a second or a third or a fourth time and eventually it becomes apparent that the problem is not with the lawyers being

selected. The problem is not with the relationship. The problem is fundamentally with the client. And in those circumstances, eventually a court will lose patience and say, you know, you're out of choices. You can have this lawyer. You can find one on your own and pay for it yourself or you can represent yourself. You know what happened, though, when you hear something like this, the 5th District judge, Keith Barnes, immediately ordered a competency evaluation. Again, not surprising considering what we're talking about. And in early October, Bailey's attorney, Ryan Stout, told the court that his client had, in fact, been found competent, stand trial. Now, just to be clear, we all know that's different than insanity. It's just

competency. Do you understand the charges? Can you assist in your own defense? You know what's going on. So per KSL, he told the court, quote, I think the evaluation report does a good job of pointing out the litany of mental health issues my client has had over the years and currently, but also does a good job of going through and applying my client's current status and ability to comprehend the proceedings. Now, Rich, in this case, it was the judge who ordered this competency about evaluation. Talk to me about, you know, that seemed appropriate here, I guess. I guess it's a determination by the court when they see or even a determination or request by the defense attorney when they have to have a, there's a serious question of mental health, right? Right. I think,

you know, as a baseline issue, the defendant has to be competent, as you said perfectly, and distinguishing between competency for trial and insanity, they have to be able to participate in the defense and understand the charges. And a judge should have that assessed if the judge has any question about it. And as we've been discussing, some of her positions and some of the things she was asking for here did raise a genuine issue. And I absolutely think that evaluation was appropriate and I credit the judge for ordering it. Good job. And get this, KSLTV reports that at the very end of the hearing, Bailey actually spoke up and asked the judge to hold a bail hearing because she's been behind bars since her arrest in June of 2024. There was no possibility of

release. She reportedly told the court it was either to the effect of I'd like to or I have do get my surgery and meds fixed. Okay. Now, when her attorney told the judge that he advised his client not to request a bail hearing, that is when she then tried to fire him again. The judge told Bailey that right now couldn't order a bail hearing at that moment. And according to KSL, he would add it to the docket for November 6th when she was next to do in court for a status update. But as we mentioned, instead she pled guilty, something the prosecution, by the way, said the victims in this case were, quote, on board with. Let's start there, Rich.

How important is it to get the victim's family or the victims themselves on board with a guilty plea? Because a lot of times, you know, they would say, I want to take this fully to trial, ultimate punishment, you know, have the day in court. Talk to me about that. So it's not legally required. The prosecutors can negotiate bail without having the victims on board. We've seen that happen before.

seen cases where there are different victims that have different ideas about what should be done and the prosecutors have to come up with a conclusion. I think it's important. I think the justice system exists for the victims, both to punish the wrongdoer but also to advocate on behalf of the victims. And I always think the victims should be consulted in the process, but they can't drive, you know, they can't insist on a trial if there's nothing to be tried. I mean, she is pleading guilty to the top charges in this count. She is subject to the top punishment that was being sought. There really would be no reason to have a trial. You know, if the victims wanted to make a public spectacle of it, or to inflict punishment on her by having to

having it be a trial, that's not really a good enough reason. So it sounds like they were consultants. I view that as important, but it can't control the case. Now, this judge ordered a pre-sentence investigation to be done before the actual sentencing hearing. Why is that important? What are they looking for in a pre-sentencing investigation? Well, the judges always consider a variety of factors in issuing a sentence.

You know, one thing you want to know is the background of the defendant. Is there any criminal history? What are the other factors in their life that may have contributed to this crime? What else is going on here? I'm sure the judge is going to consider the medical circumstances that appear to be an issue here. The judge is going to want to, you know, figure out if there's any possible future here and go through the process of getting a report that puts all that information together. you usually get a pre-sentencing report in any kind of case like this.

Yeah. And by the way, while I have you, and as we're talking about this, I can't just glean over the crime, okay? I think it's very important because that's going to be the subject of this too, really understanding from the victim's family members and the victim and, you know, what happened here. So I want to go back and I want to talk about how we got here and just the absolutely disturbing details that we learned about Bailey's crime, crimes in the days after her rampage. So Bailey was reportedly seen on neighborhood cameras, driving up to her parents' home in Washington City in her yellow Kia Soul. Bailey didn't live at the house. And, in fact, there was a protective order in place. This is according to KSL. But the exact circumstances that led to that protective order, unclear.

Seems like there was issues with the family. But when Bailey entered through an unlocked door, her brother reportedly later told police that he could hear his parents shouting at her to get out. Going through this affidavit that was filed with the court, it says, quote, admitted that she entered the house and almost immediately began shooting at her mother, G.B. Mia described firing multiple shots at her mother. Multiple spent casings were located inside the home in the area near where G.B.'s body was located. Mia stated that her father, J.B., heard the shots and began walking towards her. Mia stated that she shot her father in the head and that he immediately dropped to the ground. After going downstairs for a time, Mia came back upstairs.

Mea described that she returned to her father who was lying on the ground and shot him one more time in the head to make sure that he was dead. While doing that, Mia heard her mother making noises, walk back over to her mother and shot her in the head to make sure that she was dead. Mia further stated that she did not have remorse for her actions and that she would not change what she had done. Mia stated, I would do it again. I hate them. You know, Rich, aside from the fact that this would have been an incredibly difficult case to defend, the cold and callous nature of this is something that could very much work against her in sentencing, but just a disgusting crime. Yeah, I think it will work against her in sentencing. We distinguish, and the law distinguishes between what we call heat of passion murders where someone suddenly snaps and kills someone, often a loved one. with premeditated murder. And this murder is premeditated.

She came to the house to commit a crime. And then once inside, had a lot of opportunities to stop, right? Shot them, could have stopped and not come back and shot them again. So it's premeditated at the beginning. It has opportunities for her to stop. She doesn't. there's the attempted murder or assault of the brother, whatever you want to call that. And then there is this complete lack of remorse.

And not just lack of remorse. You think about a lot of defendants aren't really remorseful, but saying I would do it again, I hate them. That's the opposite of remorse, right? So that stuff is going to be very, very difficult for her at sentencing. I don't know if just adding this but mentally ill factor to the conviction is going to get her out of a life sentence. I'll just tell you this much. This is not a case of self-defense. This is not a case of heat of passion when you're hearing something like this just going in a straight-up shooting. But I'll also tell you, and we've mentioned this before, it wasn't just her parents that Bailey targeted. Going back to the affidavit, it reads, after shooting both G.B. and J.B. on the main floor of

the residence, Mia went downstairs to the basement of the home. While downstairs, Mia sought out her brother, CB, who had locked himself in his bedroom after hearing an argument and gunshots upstairs. Upon discovering the locked door, Mia fired one round through the door in the direction of her brother. The brother's door was observed to have a hole consistent with a small caliber round. Further, a suspected bullet hole was observed in the wall inside of the brother's room. Mia stated that her brother was not her main target, but she would not have been sad had the gunshot killed him. Mia indicated that she knew her brother and his wife were in that bedroom, but they were not the main target, C.B. and his wife. A.B., both described hearing banging on the bedroom door and then a gunshot as they were trying to flee the residence from a downstairs window.

I mean, it's a miracle that they're alive. But, Rick, you also get a sense of the charges, why she was charged with what she was with respect to the brink. other, but you also wonder if they're going to provide some statements at sentencing as well. Yeah, they might. They would have the opportunity to do that, presumably, at a sentencing hearing or to submit it in writing, and they may want to be heard on that. Yep. The affidavit also included a recommendation that the court not grant Bailey bail. So, quote, in her interviews, Mia describes jumping fences or walls, hiding in bushes, sleeping in a park bathroom, and other efforts to elude law enforcement. Mia bragged about her ability to avoid the efforts of law enforcement to

locate her, including evading officers, hiding from helicopters and hiding from drones. When Mia was ultimately apprehended, she was hiding in a prickly bush. Mia went to great efforts to evade law enforcement and is a substantial flight risk if released on bail. I mean, even if she hadn't pled guilty, Rich, and today was supposed to be her bail hearing, she wasn't going to get it. No, not a million years was anyone going to give her bail, given the nature of the crime and obviously a flight risk. And, you know, on some level, there's some level of mental instability here, whether you want to call it incompetent or mentally ill, but there's something going on there. You wouldn't feel good about letting her out on bail.

There was no way that was going to happen. No, no. Well, look, I mean, this is quite the update. It is quite the development. Let's see how sentencing goes. Rick Schoenstein, thanks so much taking the time. Appreciate it. Good to see you. Good to see you. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can follow me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. Law and Crime series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.