It took a jury just over two hours to decide to convict a man accused of fatally shooting a 2-month-old girl, her grandmother and a family friend at point-blank range nearly 10 years ago in Salt Lake City.
The case against Alexander Tran, now 42, had stalled multiple times since his arrest in September 2015, when police found him holding a gun in the basement of the Jordan Meadows home where he lived with 50-year-old Heike Poike and her two grandchildren, 2-month-old Lyrik and the girl’s 8-year-old brother.
Poike, Lyrik and a family friend, Dakota Smith, were found dead in the home’s living room. The grandmother and little girl had been covered with a blue tarp; Smith was on the couch. All were shot with the same gun Tran was holding, prosecutors said. Lyrik’s brother was not home.
Beginning Tuesday, eight jurors, including two alternates, sat in 3rd District Judge Elizabeth Hruby-Mills’ Salt Lake City courtroom, hearing from a series of witnesses as prosecutors built their case against Tran.
On Thursday afternoon, those jurors found him guilty of three counts of aggravated murder.
Tran wore a black suit and black tie throughout the trial, with his head mostly shaved, save for a dark tuft of styled hair on top and two curly tendrils that hung in front of his eyes.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Alexander Hung Tran appears at trial before the Third District Court in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. Tran is charged with three counts of aggravated murder in the Sept. 18, 2015 deaths of Heidi Poike, 50, her 2-month-old granddaughter, Lyrik Poike, and 28-year-old Dakota Smith.
Defense attorneys did not respond to The Salt Lake Tribune’s request for comment Thursday afternoon. It’s unclear if they plan to appeal the verdict.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill acknowledged in a statement that “the wheels of justice moved slowly in this case.”
“Today’s jury verdict shows that no matter how long it takes, this office will fight for accountability from those who victimize the people of our community,” Gill said. “We hope that the loved ones of the victims in this case feel like they have received some measure of justice, though it may not be perfect justice.”
Defendant was obsessed, prosecutors say
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Prosecuting attorney Joshua Graves gives his opening argument during the trial for Alexander Hung Tran at the 3rd District Courthouse in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. Tran was charged with three counts of aggravated murder in the Sept. 18, 2015, deaths of Heidi Poike, 50; her 2-month-old granddaughter, Lyrik Poike; and 28-year-old Dakota Smith.
Salt Lake County prosecutor Joshua Graves told jurors in his opening argument that Tran’s motive stemmed from an obsession.
Ashley Poike — Lyrik’s mother and Heike Poike’s daughter — moved herself and her kids into Tran’s home around Aug. 5, 2015. Soon after, Heike Poike moved in to help with child care. They all lived upstairs, while Tran lived in the basement.
Despite moving into Tran’s house, Ashley Poike had never seen him, prosecutors said. They met through a mutual friend, but coordinated the rental agreement through text.
On Aug. 8, 2015, Tran saw Ashley Poike for the first time. He became infatuated, Graves said.
“I shouldn’t have seen you,” Tran wrote in text message that Graves read in court. “God, you’re beautiful.” Graves said Tran continued texting her, asking to have sex and get married.
Then, on Aug. 12, police arrested Ashley Poike in connection with a human trafficking case, leaving her mother and children in Tran’s home.
But the home did not actually belong to Tran. His parents owned it and paid the bills, letting him stay there.
While Ashley Poike was in jail, Tran’s mother received an electricity bill that jumped from around $40 to $200. When Tran explained why — that the Poike family had moved into the home — Tran’s mother reportedly told him they needed to leave.
“In his twisted mind,” Graves said, “his way of getting them out was shooting them all.”
Ashley Poike in this undated photograph holds her infant daughter, Lyrik Poike, who was found dead along with the girl’s 50-year-old grandmother, Heidi Poike, and 28-year-old Dakota Smith on Sept. 18, 2015.
On Sept. 18, 2015, someone requested a welfare check on Heike Poike after she didn’t pick her 8-year-old grandson up from school that day. Officers found her and the others dead that day.
After his arrest, police reported that Tran told them, “If I think this is my mom’s fault, and that she should be here instead, is there anything I can do?”
He also told police, according to court records, that “she made me do it. I’m not saying that I didn’t do it.”
Tran’s defense attorneys tried to cast doubt on the prosecution’s version of events. Attorney Kerri Priano said in her closing argument that police “didn’t even look” at other suspects.
This includes, she said, Ashley Poike’s co-defendants, “who probably didn’t look too kindly” on Poike “snitching” to police, according to Ashley Poike’s earlier testimony.
She added that if Tran was obsessed with Ashley Poike and wanted to marry her, he likely knew she wouldn’t want to be in a relationship with him if he killed her family.
Priano also pointed to witness reports from the time that said Tran was not home when the murders likely occurred and contended he hadn’t seen the bodies when he arrived home and went to his basement bedroom.
Tran had done some strange things, as indicated in his texts to Ashley Poike, but, Priano said, “There’s a difference between being weird and being twisted.”
‘Justice’ and ‘closure’
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A woman leaves candles on the porch of the home of three homicide victims in Salt Lake City, Saturday September 19, 2015. The three people found dead were identified as Heidi Poike, 50; her 2-month-old granddaughter, Lyrik Poike; and 28-year-old Dakota Smith.
Relatives of both the Poikes and and Smith told The Tribune they were happy with jury’s decision after waiting so long for the case to resolve.
Outside the courtroom Thursday, Smith’s parents, grandparents and cousin were emotional after hearing the verdict.
“Now we can concentrate on who they were as amazing individuals when they were on Earth,” cousin Chelsi Morris said, “instead of what this person did to them.”
Smith’s grandmother, Carla Guyre, added that they loved Smith and that they were also thinking of the Poikes.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Guyre said, “but justice was served today.”
Brittany Sessions, one of Heike Poike’s children, said in a written statement that waiting the last decade for “justice and answers” had “deeply” impacted her family, and “no amount of punishment will be worth the lives of three amazing souls.”
“But,” the statement continued, “it is a start.”
“It is unreal how long this has taken,” Sessions said, “but we are finally getting the closure that we need to move on from this tragedy.”
The trial was delayed for more than four years after defense attorneys in 2016 raised concerns about Tran’s mental competency.
Police searching his house found Risperidone, an antipsychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia. It had been prescribed to him by doctors at the University Neuropsychiatric Institute months before the murders, in June.
After defense attorneys filed court papers questioning his competency, two mental health experts examined Tran. Based on their findings, Hruby-Mills found Tran had schizoaffective disorder and wasn’t competent to stand trial, according to court documents filed in December 2016.
The document quoted an evaluator who found Tran “‘comprehends that he is charged with aggravated murder and that three people were killed in his house, but he appears to lack an appreciation of their significance’ due to delusional ideas about death and potential case outcomes.”
He was committed to the Utah State Hospital in June 2017 to receive treatment to restore his competency. By May 2020, evaluators had reported that he was competent to stand trial, and Hruby-Mills signed an order affirming that in December of that year.
Tran then raised issues about evidence, arguing Hruby-Mills should not allow a jury to hear evidence that police found in his home during a search on the day of the murders. Hruby-Mills denied the request, and he appealed to the Utah Supreme Court in September 2022.
The case stalled until March 2024, a month after the state high court ruled against Tran.
Tran will be sentenced Nov. 7.