Glenn Howard Griffin and Wade Garrett Maughan are charged with capital murder in a robbery that netted less than $100, and the fatal attack on Bradley Newell Perry, 22, on May 26, 1984. Perry was working the overnight shift at a Texaco Short Stop on U.S. 89.

At a preliminary hearing in 1st District Court on Thursday, a detective read a statement from Maughan in which he said Griffin became enraged during an argument with Perry over correct change.

“Glenn and I had been partying in Brigham City,” Maughan said in the statement he gave police when he was arrested in November.

Maughan said Griffin began to argue with Perry. “The attendant said he was going to call the police,” said the statement read by Box Elder County sheriffs Detective Scott Cosgrove. “Glenn hit him with the phone. I was so afraid of Glenn. I’ve never seen him so violent before.”

Maughan said Griffin then grabbed a screwdriver and stabbed Perry, according to the statement. “Glenn said: I’m going to kill you if you don’t help me with him,” the statement said.

Griffin was arrested in June when his DNA was matched to a bloody dollar bill from the crime scene. Police say he gave the bill as change after he pumped gas and sold cigarettes to two college students at the convenience store right after the killing.

The students, who turned over the dollar bill to police 21 years ago, testified they stopped at the station — the only place open for miles at 4 a.m. back then — and found Griffin posing as a clerk.

They noticed his bruised and scratched arms, blood-splattered clothing and shaky demeanor, and they left quickly.

“We decided to go to a phone and go fast, hoping someone would catch us. We knew the area was kind of a speed trap,” testified Ali Sabbah, who was then a student at Utah State University in Logan. He and classmate Bassam Braish were driving to Ogden.

“We thought something was going on,” Braish testified. “I put the bloody dollar bill on the dashboard to protect any fingerprints.”

Judge Ben Hadfield ruled there is enough evidence to hold Griffin for trial and set April 10 for pretrial conference.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D2.