Jeremy Valdes has been charged with two counts of aggravated murder in the slaying of a mother and son found stuffed in a closet in a Roy mobile home.
The case marks the third double-homicide in Weber County since late 2007 and the third potential death penalty case currently pending in 2nd District Court in Ogden.
Preliminary estimates put the time of death around 6 a.m. Nov. 25 for Pamela Knight Jeffries, 56, and Matthew Roddy, 30, whose bodies were found Monday.
Valdes, 33, confessed to both killings, according to charging documents filed Friday.
The papers say he told police of stabbing Roddy to death and kicking Jeffries in the head, rendering her unconscious, then suffocating her.
The probable cause affidavits for Valdes and girlfriend Miranda Statler, 26, now his co-defendant, describe a brief but deadly melee in the trailer on the day before Thanksgiving.
Statler could hear Roddy's screams as she scuffled with Jeffries in the front room of the trailer while Valdes was stabbing Roddy to death in a bedroom. Jeffries had accused Statler of stealing her prescription medications, apparently triggering both altercations.
When Valdes came out of the bedroom with a bloody knife, Jeffries was on her hands and knees. Valdes kicked Jeffries in the head, which left the woman unconscious.
Valdes and Statler left the trailer for five to 10 minutes and returned to find Jeffries still breathing.
"Statler watched as Valdes put a plastic bag on Jeffries' head and secured it with duct tape," the affidavit said. The couple left again for an unspecified amount of time and returned to find both victims had died. Valdes and Statler moved the bodies into a closet in Roddy's bedroom.
The pair left the trailer for a third time, taking Roddy's cell phone, vehicle and credit card, all later recovered in Clearfield.
An autopsy found Roddy suffered "multiple stab wounds and laceration injuries to his head, neck, face and upper torso," the affidavit said, while Jeffries showed "signs of blunt force trauma and other injuries consistent with strangulation."
Only Valdes is charged with homicide. He and Statler are each charged with auto theft and obstructing justice, as well as two counts each of abuse or desecration of a human body, a charge that includes concealing as an offense.
Statler is also charged with unlawful possession of a credit card, as Roddy's credit card was found in her purse.
All of the charges are felonies.
Weber County Attorney Dee Smith refused to comment on events beyond the descriptions in the official charging documents.
The slaying of multiple victims is the aggravating circumstance cited to justify a charge of aggravated murder with the potential death penalty in the case, he said.
Utah's capital homicide statute also lists as an aggravating circumstance a murder committed to prevent testimony to a crime. But Smith said it doesn't apply.
"I'm not sure we could rely on that as an aggravating circumstance in this case," he said.
Around 1 a.m. Nov. 25, police say, Jeffries and Roddy talked to a Roy officer who responded to the home after they reported the theft of Valium and OxyContin, prescription medications Jeffries took for pain.
They reported their guests of a week or more, Valdes and Statler, likely stole the pills. Five hours later, the mother and son were dead, according to the preliminary police timeline of events.
"We've made no decision yet as to whether we are going to ask for the death penalty," Smith said.
"Up to this point, we've been focused on analyzing the evidence and making sure that it supports the allegations. We believe we have evidence to support an aggravated murder charge."
Filing the aggravated murder charges, as opposed to straight murder, is the first step toward an eventual execution. Officials must file with the court a formal notice of intent to seek the death penalty.
Upon conviction at trial or a guilty plea, a sentencing hearing follows that can typically last as long as a week. A jury is asked to approve a sentence of death, life or life with parole.
Smith was a part of that process, from the other side, when a Box Elder County jury convicted Glen Howard Griffin of capital homicide in November 2008 for the 1984 murder of gas station attendant Bradley Newell Perry.
Smith was a member of Griffin's defense team. That jury opted for life without parole instead of the death penalty.
"I certainly prefer to be on this side," Smith said.
Seeing justice served for victims is a far more "concrete" form of satisfaction than toiling to ensure defendants get their constitutional rights, he said.
Death penalty cases, he said, become more drawn out because of the high stakes involved. He said he expects Valdes' case will be no different.
"It seems to be the norm, a lot of litigation before getting to trial," Smith said. "Anytime you have a crime of this magnitude, allegations of this magnitude, you expect it's going to take awhile."
Riqo Perea is charged with capital homicide for a gang-related double homicide in an August 2007 shooting in Ogden. Jacob Ethridge is charged the same in the July 2008 shooting of two women in Ogden.
Police claim confessions in both cases, but neither case has gone to trial, as literally scores of defense motions have been argued, largely tied to the constitutionality of the death penalty.
Perea's was the first death penalty homicide charge filed in six years in Weber County.
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