NC NC - Faith Hedgepeth, 19, UNC student, Chapel Hill, 7 Sep 2012 #3

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faithx said:
According to an order posted today on the North Carolina eCourts portal (case number 21CR054671-310), MESO is no longer represented by the public defender as he has now "retained the law firms of Chris Barnes, PLLC and Coleman, Merritt, Murphy and Rainsford, P.C. as his attorneys."
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Wow, thanks again for noting this! Does this mean another long (sort of re-set) delay in proceedings, or does it mean we are closer than ever to a trial date? And HOW is MESO, after all this time, suddenly able to afford the services of a private attorney office (from Hillsborough)?
I guess we’ll all learn more soon enough, but I sure hope the press gets onto this.
 
faithx said:
According to an order posted today on the North Carolina eCourts portal (case number 21CR054671-310), MESO is no longer represented by the public defender as he has now "retained the law firms of Chris Barnes, PLLC and Coleman, Merritt, Murphy and Rainsford, P.C. as his attorneys."
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Someone has mentioned to me that MESO is now represented by TWO separate law firms (one Chapel Hill and one Hillsborough) — I didn’t catch that when “faithx” originally posted the name of the new defenders. Seems a bit bizarre, 3 years after arrest; I can imagine things it might imply but don’t want to speculate…
 
Webthrush said:
Someone has mentioned to me that MESO is now represented by TWO separate law firms (one Chapel Hill and one Hillsborough) — I didn’t catch that when “faithx” originally posted the name of the new defenders. Seems a bit bizarre, 3 years after arrest; I can imagine things it might imply but don’t want to speculate…
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just to be more specific, MESO’s defense lawyers are now listed as Chris Barnes (fluent in both English & Spanish, and from a Chapel Hill office focusing “on the fields immigration, criminal, and traffic law.”) and James Rainsford, Samuel Coleman, and Jason Murphy from a Hillsborough office.
Seems like a lot of legal firepower!? (though, while all the attorneys have experience with criminal defense and civil litigation matters, I can’t tell if they’ve ever taken on a case with the magnitude and gravity of this one?) In any event, does anyone have a sense of how long it normally takes new lawyers to get 'up to speed' on a case that is already 3 years old with 1000s of documents to review/digest???
 
MESO’s “Administrative Hearing” (Durham courthouse) is scheduled for tomorrow (Oct 10)… I sent a notice of such to 3 local news outlets in hopes they might cover it (if anyone else cares to do so, feel free) — for all I know it may be a 5-minute procedural nothing-burger of an event(?), but in case anything of note happens it would be nice to have press coverage.
 
Apologies as I am quite late to this case. But do have to concede the apparent extended time delay is worrisome IMO. And hope something might occur at tomorrow’s hearing, October 10.

IIUC the slaying occurred at an off-campus apartment or housing. So an initial theory of mine is gutted - i .e. perhaps some confusion between investigating local police and campus police. (In those scenarios sometimes there can be confusion, overlap, misses, or ambiguities and uncertainty.) Other than that, no clear idea why this is prolonged and not widely publicized.

Also interesting that the defendant MES-O now has legal representation other than a public defender. Wonder how that might manifest in tomorrow’s hearing?

As @Boodles notes in post 626 above with other unsolved area crimes wonder why there isn’t more emphasis on attempts to solve them? Has there been any discussion of links to other unsolved crimes? Is this defendant possibly linked to others? Not new to sleuthers here, but IIUC MES-O was arrested September 2021; this FH case dates from September 2012. That is a 9 years time period. A lot can occur in that time. SMH. MOO
 
I am not Sherlock H. said:
Apologies as I am quite late to this case. But do have to concede the apparent extended time delay is worrisome IMO. And hope something might occur at tomorrow’s hearing, October 10.

IIUC the slaying occurred at an off-campus apartment or housing. So an initial theory of mine is gutted - i .e. perhaps some confusion between investigating local police and campus police. (In those scenarios sometimes there can be confusion, overlap, misses, or ambiguities and uncertainty.) Other than that, no clear idea why this is prolonged and not widely publicized.

Also interesting that the defendant MES-O now has legal representation other than a public defender. Wonder how that might manifest in tomorrow’s hearing?

As @Boodles notes in post 626 above with other unsolved area crimes wonder why there isn’t more emphasis on attempts to solve them? Has there been any discussion of links to other unsolved crimes? Is this defendant possibly linked to others? Not new to sleuthers here, but IIUC MES-O was arrested September 2021; this FH case dates from September 2012. That is a 9 years time period. A lot can occur in that time. SMH. MOO
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Hard to come to this crime “quite late in the case” there have been so many twists, turns, theories, from the past. Some (but certainly not all) of the many podcasts covering the murder do a pretty good job of covering main points. In any event, MESO has not been linked (so far as I know) to any major or violent crimes either before Faith’s murder, nor in the 9 yrs. following (before his arrest), and apparently remained in the area the whole time. Supposedly he continues to voice his innocence, and so far as I know the main evidence against him continues to be forensic DNA linkage (if police have developed more evidence in 3 yrs. time they're staying tight-lipped).
Anyway, I’ve seen no reports of what transpired at this week’s “Administrative Hearing” :(
 
faithx said:
According to the North Carolina eCourts portal (case number 21CR054671-310), Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares has now been indicted for first-degree burglary, first-degree rape, and first-degree sexual offense, in addition to murder.

The next Administrative Hearing is scheduled for 01/16/2025 at 10:00 AM.
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Thanks so much for the update faithx; even with an ongoing case, with others being investigated, I just don't get why it took over 3 years to go from charges to these 3 indictments against MESO???

...couple of things (IF I understand the law correctly):
"first-degree burglary" apparently means entering a domicile with the intent to steal, it does not necessarily mean they found MESO in possession of anything from the apt.
...from what I've read "first-degree rape" entails intercourse (not just rape with an object), so a bit curious since my understanding has always been that semen was never found in Faith but only on her clothing or bed linen (though possible they were engaged in forced intercourse and Faith managed to push the perp away?)
 
Webthrush said:
Thanks so much for the update faithx; even with an ongoing case, with others being investigated, I just don't get why it took over 3 years to go from charges to these 3 indictments against MESO???

...couple of things (IF I understand the law correctly):
"first-degree burglary" apparently means entering a domicile with the intent to steal, it does not necessarily mean they found MESO in possession of anything from the apt.
...from what I've read "first-degree rape" entails intercourse (not just rape with an object), so a bit curious since my understanding has always been that semen was never found in Faith but only on her clothing or bed linen (though possible they were engaged in forced intercourse and Faith managed to push the perp away?)
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You're welcome!

Regarding the burglary charge (general statute number 14-51), the indictment published on the portal states "The defendant broke and entered with the intent to commit a felony therein." In this case, the felony can be murder and/or rape, not necessarily theft.

The general statute number for the first-degree rape charge is 14-27.2 (it has been recodified as 14-27.21 for offenses committed on or after December 1, 2015 according to the North Carolina General Assembly website), while the general statute number for the first-degree sexual offense charge is 14-27.4 (recodified as 14-27.26).

Using the recodified statute numbers, I was able to find information from RAINN regarding the charges.

First-degree rape: "Engaging in vaginal intercourse with another person by force and against the will of the other person," [...] "It is not necessary upon the trial of any indictment for an offense where the sex act alleged is vaginal intercourse or anal intercourse to prove the actual emission of semen in order to constitute the offense; but the offense shall be completed upon proof of penetration only. Penetration, however slight, is vaginal intercourse or anal intercourse."

First-degree sexual offense: "Engaging in a sexual act with another person by force and against the will of the other person," [...] "“Sexual act” means cunnilingus, fellatio, analingus, or anal intercourse, but does not include vaginal intercourse. Sexual act also means the penetration, however slight, by any object into the genital or anal opening of another person’s body."
 
Thank you Faithx. Agree with Webthrush here. Why 3 years of waiting for something that could have taken a year or less with lab results? Something still smells fishy about all of this
 
Maybe they were negotiating a plea, but those talks stalled, and now the DA is done waiting?
 
Skigirl said:
Maybe they were negotiating a plea, but those talks stalled, and now the DA is done waiting?
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yes, possibly, but CHPD has long implied that their investigation continues looking at various key individuals… so IF perchance others were involved then I'm wondering how difficult it is to prove the charges against MESO; i.e. is there any chance he was present but someone else committed key acts of the crime? The implication of taking this long to indict is that they didn't have enough evidence to convict beyond a reasonable doubt before.
 
Webthrush said:
yes, possibly, but CHPD has long implied that their investigation continues looking at various key individuals… so IF perchance others were involved then I'm wondering how difficult it is to prove the charges against MESO; i.e. is there any chance he was present but someone else committed key acts of the crime? The implication of taking this long to indict is that they didn't have enough evidence to convict beyond a reasonable doubt before.
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I would imagine that they wanted a very strong case before it went to a Grand Jury. What I'd like to know is how he went from being indigent and unable to afford counsel, to having retained counsel.
 
I see there’s another new filing listed in MESO’s “Case Summary” as of Nov. 7:

“FILING
order allowing the public defender to withdraw”

I s’pose this is just some further routine procedural step, though I thought the public defender had already withdrawn? …seems like these matters drag out interminably… :mad:anyway, does anyone know if all this change in the defense automatically delays the start of any possible trial, or does it not make that much difference?
 
I am beating a dead horse here but what happened to the right to a speedy trial? this is 3 years and not any closer to a resolution. Imagine if he's innocent? that's 3 meals a day x 3+ years plus all of the prison guards and related staff. People wonder why prisons are overcrowded or our taxes are high. Literally hundreds of thousands of dollars for one prisoner and if this is a state wide issue that is some gross negligence
 
raiders444 said:
I am beating a dead horse here but what happened to the right to a speedy trial? this is 3 years and not any closer to a resolution. Imagine if he's innocent? that's 3 meals a day x 3+ years plus all of the prison guards and related staff. People wonder why prisons are overcrowded or our taxes are high. Literally hundreds of thousands of dollars for one prisoner and if this is a state wide issue that is some gross negligence
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I don't know why, but it seems that it often takes a really long time for Triangle area trials to start. It was three years for both Eve Carson and for Nancy Cooper (whose husband eventually pled six years after her death after being convicted and then being granted a new trial). Kathleen Peterson's was fast for Durham, but even that one took two years to start. I'm sure others are faster, but some of the cadence is determined by the defense.
 
good points. perhaps this is slogging along by design of his defense team. Just because you have a right to a speedy trial does not mean you have to use it? hmmm
 
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