IFPD Chief issues statement regarding claims witness was threatened
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IDAHO FALLS — Idaho Falls Police Chief Mark McBride has issued a statement regarding claims a witness in a murder case made during a court hearing last week.
Justin Sarbaum is charged with second-degree murder in the Jan. 14 shooting death of Tyson Tew.
Kodey Payne, a friend of Sarbaum who was visiting Sarbaum’s apartment the night Tew was shot, was called as a witness during a five-hour preliminary hearing in Bonneville County on Friday.
Payne, who said he had a mental disability, testified Idaho Falls police officers scared him into giving a false statement and that he was handcuffed while being transported to the police station even though he wasn’t a suspect in the case.
“The cop said he doesn’t allow people in his car without handcuffing them,” Payne said. “(When we got there), they said I was free to go, but they put chairs in front of the door.”
He said, under oath, that detectives threatened him with a long jail sentence if he didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear.
Prosecutors confronted Payne about his struggle with memory and ability to place events. Payne said he doesn’t function in a “normal way” and told Sarbaum’s defense attorney, Curtis Smith, that he is on disability.
Idaho Falls Police Department Chief Mark McBride issued the following statement to EastIdahoNews.com regarding Payne’s testimony:
“The testimony of Kodey Payne during Friday’s preliminary hearing for Justin Sarbaum claiming the police threatened him is not the practice of the Idaho Falls Police. All interviews with Kodey Payne were videotaped and will be available at the appropriate time in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act. Officers followed best practices, a long-standing national police practice, of handcuffing persons being transported in a police vehicle.”
At the end of the hearing, Magistrate Judge Keith Walker ruled there was enough evidence to bind Sarbaum over to district court on the second-degree murder charge.