OGDEN -- Attorneys for accused double-murderer Jeremy Valdes will argue this week for bail and to throw out his alleged confession.
In a suppression motion filed earlier this month, Gary Barr, Valdes' lead public defender, claimed police denied Valdes' request for a lawyer four times at the outset of what became more than eight hours of questioning Nov. 30.
Arguments on the motion and a request for bail are set for a hearing Friday morning before 2nd District Judge Mark DeCaria.
Valdes was arrested Nov. 30 and held without bail since, subsequently charged with the Nov. 25 murders of Pamela Knight Jeffries, 56, and her son Matthew Roddy, 30, in their Roy mobile home.
Valdes faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.
He and his girlfriend, Miranda Statler, were staying at the mobile home at the invitation of Jeffries and Roddy.
A fatal altercation came after Valdes' hosts called police to report him for stealing Jeffries' prescription OxyContin, police said.
The bodies of Jeffries and Roddy were found hidden in a closet in the trailer.
Barr argues in the suppression motion that by the time police got around to reading Valdes his Miranda rights, they left out a part.
The flawed Miranda warning given "in no way reasonably conveys that the suspect has a right to have an attorney present at any time during the interrogation," the motion claims.
Barr also argues the police should have stopped interrogating Valdes as soon as he requested a lawyer.
"This second layer of prophylaxis for the Miranda right to counsel is designed to prevent police from badgering a defendant into waiving his previously asserted Miranda rights ... because of this violation of Constitutional rights, defendant's statements must be suppressed."
Police say Valdes confessed, and Statler, charged with lesser offenses, led them to a knife that had been thrown in the river at the mouth of Ogden Canyon.
Statler told police that Valdes used the weapon to stab Roddy.
Roddy was stabbed 31 times, according to medical testimony at Valdes' March 10 preliminary hearing.
On the police tape recording played in court that day, Valdes can be heard describing killing Roddy.
"He turned around and I was stabbing at him," Valdes says on the tape. Valdes allegedly kicked and beat Jeffries, then duct-taped a plastic bag over her head to suffocate her.
Statler has already been sentenced to prison for a potential 20-year term for her role in the crime.
She pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and desecration of a corpse for helping hide the bodies and to car theft for taking Roddy's vehicle after the killings.
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