Faith Hedgepeth murder trial: Jury finds Miguel Olivares guilty of first-degree murder for 2012 killing of UNC student

DURHAM, North Carolina — A man accused of killing a North Carolina college student 14 years ago was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being found guilty Friday of first-degree murder, rape and other charges after prosecutors told jurors the forensic evidence was “screaming his name.”

Faith Hedgepeth was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when she was beaten to death in her off-campus apartment in September 2012. Miguel Salguero Olivares was arrested nine years later after being arrested for drunk driving and providing a DNA sample that prosecutors said matched evidence found at the crime scene.

Salguero Olivares, 33, did not testify during the trial and his lawyers finished their closing argument without calling any witnesses. Jurors deliberated for six hours over two days before finding him guilty of murder, rape, sex offense and burglary.

In closing arguments Thursday, defense attorneys accused investigators of having “tunnel vision” in assuming their client was a monster and not a “19-year-old boy” who had consensual sex with the victim days before his death. Prosecutors, meanwhile, urged jurors to rely on DNA evidence rather than be distracted by the defense team.

“We know who did it. The forensic evidence screams his name,” said prosecutor Angela Garcia-Lamarca, who described the “incurable agony” Hedgepeth’s family endured.

“When the accused dropped the bottle on her head and she started bleeding, that was the start of bleeding that still hasn’t stopped,” she said. “He sentenced her to death. He gave everyone who loved her a life sentence. There was no one to protect her. There was no one to stop her – until now. You are all here. You are here now and you can stop her.”

Prosecutors suggest victim rejected defendant’s advances

Nearly two dozen witnesses testified for the prosecution, including crime scene technicians, state and local law enforcement, a DNA expert and friends of Hedgepeth.

Hedgepeth’s roommate, Karena Rosario, testified that she was drunk and sick when Hedgepeth drove them home from a club around 2 a.m. on September 7. She said she then called a friend to come pick her up, leaving Hedgepeth alone in the apartment. She returned a few hours later to find her roommate’s body.

Prosecutors suggested that Salguero Olivares attended a barbecue hosted by Hedgepeth’s neighbor that evening, unsuccessfully hit the young women in the parking lot, then returned, embarrassed and angry, after Rosario left. No witnesses corroborated that theory, but Garcia-Lamarca told jurors, “You don’t have to believe that to know he’s guilty.” »

An autopsy showed that Hedgepeth suffered significant skull fractures and cuts to her face and head, and that she had also been severely beaten on her arms and legs.

“He beat her until her skull broke like an egg,” special prosecutor Lisa Coltrane said in her closing argument. “Those were the final moments of this vibrant young woman’s life.”

Forensic evidence was the focus

Experts said the defendant’s fingerprints and palm prints were found on a wine bottle at the scene and his DNA was found in Hedgepeth’s body, on a note written on a fast food bag found at the scene and on a blood-covered rum bottle that investigators identified as the murder weapon.

Erin Ermish, a forensic pathologist at the state crime lab, said the DNA collected from Hedgepeth’s body was 170 seven billion times more likely to be a mixture of DNA from Hedgepeth and Salguero Olivares than from that of Hedgepeth and an unknown individual. A septillion is a 1 followed by 24 zeros. In contrast, NASA estimates that the entire universe contains only a septillion stars.

Ermish also said the DNA mixture from the top of the rum bottle was 48.6 tredecillion times more likely to come from Hedgepeth and Salguero Olivares than from two unknown, unrelated individuals. A tredecillion is a 1 followed by 42 zeros.

The defense highlighted the errors of the investigation

Defense attorneys questioned Rosario’s account of that night, the processing of the crime scene and the reliability of some DNA evidence. They pointed out that police failed to search certain areas of the apartment and subsequently lost traces of blood and pointed out that DNA from a sexual encounter could remain for several days afterwards.

“Maybe he was living the same life as the other 19- and 20-year-olds we’ve heard about in this case,” defense attorney Jason Murphy said. “Maybe he drank too much, maybe he forgot a meeting.”

But Coltrane called it “noise.”

“No matter what kind of mistakes were made or what things were missed, it doesn’t erase the palm print; it doesn’t somehow remove Faith’s DNA,” she said. “They didn’t talk to everyone in Chapel Hill, and it doesn’t matter. They still arrested this guy because he left his DNA like confetti all over this room.”