OGDEN -- Trial has finally been set for Jeremy Valdes, who is facing the death penalty in Roy's 2009 double homicide.
Valdes, 35, is charged with aggravated murder in the Nov. 25, 2009, killings of Matthew Roddy, 30, and Roddy's mother, Pamela Jeffries, 56, in their Roy mobile home.
The jury trial is now set for early 2013, for seven days beginning Jan. 8 and spread over a period ending Feb. 15, in Ogden 2nd District Court.
The dates were set Wednesday after the conclusion of several closed-door hearings since Feb. 23 on confidential defense motions.
The case has lingered in the motion phase, including a suppression hearing that stretched on for almost a year before it ended in February 2011 with prosecutors conceding to a defense challenge of Valdes' admissions to police. Valdes was not fully read his Miranda rights, so the alleged confession was out.
But debate continued for another few months before Judge Mark DeCaria agreed to allow prosecutors limited use of the statements in rebuttal, meaning if Valdes ever took the stand to declare his innocence.
The closed-door hearings begun last month were shuttered as Valdes' public defenders, Gary Barr and Randall Marshall, made their case for court-ordered witness fees.
The arguments are confidential and their fee motion sealed, as the defense has the right under rules of evidence to shield potential defense strategy from prosecutors.
But because Weber County pays the public defenders, the county is allowed to have legal counsel present when funds are requested. Chris Allred, a nonprosecutor with the county attorney's office, attended the hearings but is banned from sharing the details with his prosecutor co-workers.
In scheduling the trial, DeCaria set a motion deadline for Aug. 1 this year. Barr has indicated challenges to the constitutionality of the death penalty will be filed.
Roy police say the killings came to prevent Roddy and Jeffries from reporting prescription drug thefts by Valdes and his girlfriend Miranda Statler. Roddy was stabbed to death and Jeffries beaten and suffocated by Valdes, according to the allegations.
Statler has already been sentenced to prison for a potential 20-year term for her involvement, which came short of being charged with homicide.
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