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Utah man pleads guilty in booby-trap case

Published: September 5, 2012 Comment on this article

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — One of the two young men accused of setting potentially deadly booby traps along a popular hiking trail in Utah has pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment.

photo - FILE - This file photo released on April 23, 2012 by the Utah County Sheriff's Department shows one of the booby traps taken from a crude shelter made of dead tree limbs found in a Provo Canyon, Utah. One of the two young men accused of setting potentially deadly booby traps along a popular hiking trail in Utah has pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that 20-year-old Benjamin Rutkowski entered his plea Wednesday in Provo's 4th District Court. Rutkowski faces no more than a year in jail at his Oct. 17 sentencing on the misdemeanor charge. (AP Photo/Utah County Sheriff Department, File)

FILE - This file photo released on April 23, 2012 by the Utah County Sheriff's Department shows one of the booby traps taken from a crude shelter made of dead tree limbs found in a Provo Canyon, Utah. One of the two young men accused of setting potentially deadly booby traps along a popular hiking trail in Utah has pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that 20-year-old Benjamin Rutkowski entered his plea Wednesday in Provo's 4th District Court. Rutkowski faces no more than a year in jail at his Oct. 17 sentencing on the misdemeanor charge. (AP Photo/Utah County Sheriff Department, File)

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Court records show 20-year-old Benjamin Rutkowski entered his plea Wednesday in Provo's 4th District Court.

Rutkowski faces no more than a year in jail at his Oct. 17 sentencing on the misdemeanor charge.

The second defendant, 21-year-old Kai Christensen, has yet to enter a plea and has an Oct. 3 court date.

U.S. Forest Service officers say the two men set the traps in May in a canyon trail near Provo. One trap was rigged to send a 20-pound, spiked boulder swinging at head level. The other was designed to trip a passer-by into a bed of sharpened wooden stakes.