HIGHLAND, Utah (Court TV) — In the final hearing ahead of her murder trial, Meggan Sundwall‘s defense successfully convinced a judge to keep some bad facts out of her murder trial while allowing some key evidence in.
Meggan Sundwall appears at a pretrial hearing on Feb. 5, 2026. (Court TV)
Sundwall is charged with aggravated murder and obstruction of justice in the death of her friend, 38-year-old Kacee Terry. Prosecutors say Terry died from an overdose of insulin, incorrectly believing that she had terminal cancer as a result of lies from Sundwall, who was a registered nurse. Sundwall’s defense says that Terry killed herself with the insulin.
At Thursday’s final pretrial hearing, with Sundwall’s trial scheduled to begin next month, Judge Sean Petersen heard arguments from both the prosecution and defense on evidence that could potentially be shown to the jury.
Judge Petersen denied a prosecution motion seeking to prevent the defense from telling the jury that Terry was under investigation for theft at the time of her death. While Judge Petersen said the facts could be introduced as the motive for Terry to kill herself, the defense is not allowed to use the information to suggest anything about the victim’s character.
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The defense will not be allowed to tell the jury that Terry was selling or trafficking drugs, despite finding evidence in texts that she told a friend she was able to get insulin. Sundwall’s attorney said evidence shows that Terry was selling opiates prescribed to her to purchase Xanax after “doctor shopping,” but the jury won’t see it.
While prosecutors wanted to introduce evidence that Sundwall committed timecard fraud and was fired from her job right before Terry’s death, they will be limited in telling the jury only that Sundwall lost her job suddenly and without warning. Because there are no theft or fraud charges pending against Sundwall, Judge Petersen ruled that it would be more appropriate for the jury to hear only that Sundwall was terminated; the jurors will receive an instruction not to speculate on the reason.
The jury also won’t see several text messages Sundwall exchanged with her husband in the months and years leading up to Terry’s death. Despite the suggestive nature of some of the messages, with one reading, “I think Kaycee is going to outlive me and we’re going to be stuck in our situation forever,” Judge Petersen found their contents to be protected by marital privilege.
Prosecutors say that Sundwall believed she was the beneficiary of Terry’s life insurance and actively helped her to take her own life, even offering to “help” and suggesting what medications to take.
