Alert trooper earns award
   Roberts' traffic stop led to arrest of murder suspect
   The Utah Highway Patrol trooper whose March traffic stop led to the arrest of a man now facing a murder trial in Michigan will receive a national law enforcement award.
   Trooper Kelly Roberts, a 12-year UHP veteran, was named the Grand Prize Award winner from the International Association of Chiefs of Police Highway Safety Committee out of a pool of 242 officers nationwide.
   Roberts discovered two dead bodies in the car of Patrick Daniel after pulling him over March 14 on I-70 near Richfield for having no front license plate.
   The trooper had become suspicious when Daniel, 32, gave him conflicting information, used an alias and could not produce any identification or vehicle registration.
   After arresting Daniel for traffic violations, Roberts and another trooper searched the car and found the frozen and dismembered body of Becky Britton, 31. Britton had been killed four months earlier and frozen. Roberts and his fellow trooper also found the body of Stanley Bilton Jr., 35, wrapped in plastic in the car's trunk.
   Investigators say Daniel killed Bilton and was planning to assume the drifter's identity. Britton and Daniel had a child together, who also disappeared and is believed to have been murdered around the time of his mother's death, investigators say.
   All the murders are believed to have occurred in Ann Arbor, Mich. Daniel is currently charged in Michigan with Bilton's murder and is scheduled for a Dec. 5 pretrial hearing. He has not been charged yet with Britton's murder.
   Roberts was in Michigan a few weeks ago to testify at a preliminary hearing in the case where Daniel was ordered to stand trial for Bilton's murder.
   Fellow troopers say Roberts' grisly discovery last spring was another example of his keen observation skills. Just 1 1/2 weeks ago, Roberts stopped a car on I-70 en route from California to Chicago and found 20 pounds of marijuana.
   "He can make a traffic stop for a traffic violation and then if there's other things going on he's very keen on being able to detect other criminal activity," Roberts' supervisor Capt. Keith Squires said. "Kelly just is one that asks questions and he looks beyond the original stop."
   Roberts' award is part of the national "Looking Beyond the License Plate" program that recognizes officers who uncover more serious crimes by staying alert during regular traffic stops.
   He will receive the award Monday at the UHP Section 10 office in Richfield.
  
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