Miguel Salguero-Olivares convicted of murder and rape of Faith Hedgepeth after 14 years
A Durham County jury found Miguel Salguero-Olivares guilty of first-degree murder and rape of UNC student Faith Hedgepeth, 12 years after her 2012 killing.
Jury convicts man in 2012 killing of UNC-Chapel Hill student Faith Hedgepeth
A Durham County jury found Miguel Salguero-Olivares guilty on all counts — first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and first-degree burglary — in the killing of University of North Carolina student Faith Hedgepeth, dailytarheel.com reports.
The verdict was delivered on Friday, more than 14 years after Hedgepeth, 19, was found beaten to death in her off-campus apartment in Chapel Hill on 7 September 2012.
Salguero-Olivares was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder conviction. The judge also imposed 64 to 89 months for burglary, 240 to 348 months for first-degree rape, and 240 to 348 months for first-degree sexual offense — all to run consecutively. Salguero-Olivares is appealing the convictions and sentences.
"It's not fair"
As the verdict was read aloud, Salguero-Olivares could be heard saying, "It's not fair." His mother was seen crying in the courtroom, and Salguero-Olivares shook his head at times during the proceedings.
Hedgepeth's mother, Connie Hedgepeth, delivered a victim impact statement. "I guess I have been really overwhelmed," she said. "Here we have been waiting a long time, over 14 years. And I am just glad we have the closure we need, we have peace." She added that she had forgiven what happened.
Faith's father, Roland Hedgepeth, measured the wait with precision. "That's 14 years, six weeks and four days or 169 months and 18 days and 5,158 days … that's how long it's been," he said.
Judge Keith Gregory told Connie Hedgepeth that his own son, a year younger than Faith, had also been a UNC-Chapel Hill student at the time of the murder. Gregory embraced both of Faith's parents after proceedings concluded.
DNA linked suspect nine years later
Salguero-Olivares was arrested on 16 September 2021, nine years after Hedgepeth's death. He was connected to the murder through DNA evidence collected during a drunk-driving stop the month before his arrest.
During the trial, prosecutors presented DNA and fingerprint evidence they argued placed Salguero-Olivares at the crime scene. Defence attorneys challenged the reliability of the investigation and argued that the prosecution had not proved its case.
Prosecutor Lisa Coltrain told the jury on Thursday that Salguero-Olivares had left his DNA throughout one room of Hedgepeth's apartment. "They still got the guy because he left his DNA like confetti all over that room," Coltrain said. Prosecutors alleged Salguero-Olivares was a stranger who killed Hedgepeth in a fit of rage.
Forensic scientist Erin Ermish testified that DNA swabbed from Hedgepeth's body was 170 septillion times more likely to be a mixture from Hedgepeth and Salguero-Olivares than from Hedgepeth and an unknown individual.
The victim
Hedgepeth was a 19-year-old junior majoring in biology at UNC-Chapel Hill and a member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe in Warren County, having grown up in the Hollister community. Friends found her dead at the Hawthorne at the View Apartments on Old Chapel Hill Road. An autopsy documented extensive skull fractures, cuts to her face and head, and severe bruising on her arms and legs. Several jurors became visibly emotional after viewing the autopsy photographs.
A 19-day trial
Friday marked the 19th day of the trial, including jury selection. More than 25 State Bureau of Investigation special agents worked on the case, and over 400 DNA samples were collected, according to the SBI.
Jurors began deliberating on Thursday and requested additional evidence — summaries of lab reports and fingerprint readings — before court proceedings ended for the day, returning a verdict the following morning.
The defence rested on Wednesday without calling any witnesses. Salguero-Olivares informed Judge Gregory that he would not testify in his own defence.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)