Moab man accused of posting anti-tourist stickers and threatening business owner bound for trial

A man accused of placing hundreds of anti-tourism stickers on light posts, stop signs and other public and private property has been bound over for trial on all but one of the 14 counts he was charged with following his arrest in February.

Christian Langdon Wright, 39, pleaded not guilty to 13 of the charges, which include 10 felonies. Only one count, criminal mischief with damages in excess of $5,000, regards the sticker vandalism.

Charges also include two counts of knowingly producing, dispensing or manufacturing a controlled substances; seven counts of purchase, transport, possession or use of a firearm by a restricted person; and two counts of possession of a controlled substance and one misdemeanor count of use or possession of drug paraphernalia. A third count of possession of a controlled substance was dismissed.

[Read more: Friends say ATV noise, death on the river wore down Moab activist arrested for threats]

Seventh Judicial District Court Judge Don Torgerson set a status hearing for Dec. 5, which will be held remotely.

While Wright’s preliminary hearing was held Oct. 16, court documents regarding the hearing were not posted on the state’s court website until Oct. 24.

Several witnesses were called during the hearing and prosecutors Stephen Stocks, the Grand County attorney; Eddie Cervantes; and William Langston submitted significant alleged evidence at the hearing, ranging from rifles and a shotgun, psilocybin jars, THC, and two ammunition cans filled with stickers.

Wright, who remains free on bail, is represented by defense attorney Kyler Ovard.

The hearing was one of two that took place for Wright on Oct. 16. The second case involved former Grand County Attorney Christina Sloan, who alerted Moab Police to an email Wright sent her in which he threatened to harm the owners of a local off-highway vehicle rental company.

(Moab Police Department) The police say they found several firearms inside the activist's home.

“Christina Sloan told me that Christian had reached out to her and made the statement, ‘I will also personally murder the owners of Epic 4×4 with an ax in their homes in front of their families if they do not move their predatory abusive business away from my home by the end of the summer. I have PTSD and I have a legally justifiable avenue for murder. I do not care if I am executed in retaliation for this,’” then-Moab Assistant Police Chief Lex Bell said to The Times-Independent in February.

Stickers with myriad anti-tourism messaging and Gorilla Glue used to make them more difficult to remove were among the evidence prosecutors entered during Christian Wright’s preliminary hearing.

Torgerson, after hearing oral arguments from prosecutor Michael Green and Ovard, dismissed three of the four counts Wright faced, including a felony charge of criminal solicitation. He was bound over on a misdemeanor charge of threat of violence.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on the charge Tuesday, Oct. 31.

Wright was already on law enforcement’s radar after Sloan alerted them to the alarming email he sent. Associates of Wright’s, concerned about what they considered his deteriorating mental health, also spoke to police.

He was reportedly captured on surveillance video placing stickers on infrastructure downtown. Police also reportedly knew from previous conversations that Wright possessed high-power rifles and pulled him over while he was driving prior to executing a search warrant at his Moab home.

People charged with a crime in the U.S. are presumed innocent.

This story was first published at moabtimes.com.

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