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SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake District Attorney’s Office will seek the death penalty if Donald Eugene Younge is convicted of the stabbing death of Amy Quinton that occurred a decade ago.

Younge, 43, is charged with aggravated murder and nine other felonies in connection with events that occurred at Quinton’s Salt Lake City apartment on Aug. 3, 1999.

He pleaded not guilty Monday to all charges.

Quinton, 22, was a well-liked theater student who died after being stabbed in the chest in a bedroom of the apartment at 127 S. 800 East.

Her roommate, Lynn Drebes, testified at a Nov. 25 preliminary hearing that Quinton was studying for a German final in her own bedroom, while Drebes and a friend, Erin Warn, were eating pizza and watching a movie in Drebes’ bedroom.

Drebes testified that when she went back into the kitchen, Younge, who had managed to get into the apartment, grabbed her and held a knife to her throat.

Both Drebes and Warn testified that in the events that followed, Younge demanded money, and one young woman tried calling 911, but Younge hung the phone up. Then he spoke with the 911 dispatcher who called back, and Younge calmly said the call had been a mistake.

Both women testified that Younge hurt them — he repeatedly hit Drebes and knocked her into a wall, and he stabbed Warn with a knife. As he was walking out of the apartment, he suddenly returned, went into Quinton’s bedroom and, according to the testimony of the two other women, fatally stabbed her in the chest.

Younge for some time had been held in an Illinois jail facing three murder charges in the deaths of three women there, as well as a sexual assault charge involving a fourth woman. However, the cases fell through for various reasons, including the death of the alleged sexual assault victim in an unrelated crime.

Younge also has been charged in Utah with raping a U. student in 1996. His identity was unknown at the time, but his DNA was saved. Utah law enforcement officials could put a name to the DNA after Younge was arrested in Illinois, and he subsequently has been charged in that case.

He is being held in the Salt Lake County Jail on $2 million cash-only bail.

His next court hearing is Jan. 15.

e-mail: lindat@desnews.com