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

[Webthrush]

Chris Barnes appears to be an immigration attorney. CMMR,PC is a good firm but it doesn't seem to have a lot of experience in this major felony/murder cases. But I think it is safe to assume they are being paid a full rate for their services. They are not a firm that could just pro bono a case like this.

So then is it possible (I'm just blabberin' out loud here ) that Coleman, Merritt, Murphy & Rainsford, P.C. are his principal trial or courtroom attorneys, and Barnes is fighting either for or against MESO's deportation (depending which MESO wants)? Also, someone mentioned earlier that at least one of CMMR was involved in the famous Eve Carson case (Chapel Hill) so there is some major murder case experience.

p.s.... 'nuther question; once the trial starts will it come out as public information how the lawyers are getting paid, or is that some sort of privileged info?

 

[PrairieWind]

So then is it possible (I'm just blabberin' out loud here ) that Coleman, Merritt, Murphy & Rainsford, P.C. are his principal trial or courtroom attorneys, and Barnes is fighting either for or against MESO's deportation (depending which MESO wants)? Also, someone mentioned earlier that at least one of CMMR was involved in the famous Eve Carson case (Chapel Hill) so there is some major murder case experience.

Yes I would say Barnes is handling the immigration angle and that CMMR is handling the defense of the murder case. I just glanced at the profiles of their attorneys and didn't see anyone boasting of murder defense. Maybe they are modest or have attorney's not on the site. Not sure.

 

[Seattle1]

By all accounts, the defendant has been represented by the public defender's office since his arrest. Is there any reason why the public defender's office would not appoint a private firm such as Coleman, Merritt, Murphy & Rainsford, P.C. to represent Salguero-Olivares? I recall the Iowa taxpayers also funded the private defense for Mollie Tibbets killer, Cristian Bahena Rivera, in 2021.

Criminal Cases | North Carolina Judicial Branch

Find more about criminal law and the criminal court process.

www.nccourts.gov

Faith Hedgepeth's dad watches as accused killer appears in court

"It's just a new beginning," said Roland Hedgepeth as he watched the man accused of murdering his daughter appear in court virtually on Friday.

abc11.com

Sept 17, 2021

He's being held on no bond and was appointed a public defender. On Friday, he was assigned a probable cause hearing on Oct. 7.

[..]

Authorities said DNA from the crime scene connected them to the suspect nine years later. But they didn't give details on whether Salguero-Olivares knew Faith Hedgepeth.

The murder suspect's past remains murky. A neighbor told ABC11 that Salguero-Olivares moved here from Guatemala.



Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/crime/article257547083.html#storylink=cpy

Sept 21, 2022

On Sept. 14, two days before he was charged with murder, investigators from Chapel Hill and the SBI got a DNA sample that had been obtained from Salguero-Olivares without his knowledge during a DWI traffic stop, the search warrant states.

The DNA was taken to the N.C. Crime Lab in Raleigh to compare with the evidence found at the 2012 crime scene.

[..]

In October, Salguero-Olivares’ attorney, Chief Public Defender Dawn Baxton, filed a motion to suppress evidence.

 

[PrairieWind]

By all accounts, the defendant has been represented by the public defender's office since his arrest. Is there any reason why the public defender's office would not appoint a private firm such as Coleman, Merritt, Murphy & Rainsford, P.C. to represent Salguero-Olivares? I recall the Iowa taxpayers also funded the private defense for Mollie Tibbets killer, Cristian Bahena Rivera, in 2021.

Criminal Cases | North Carolina Judicial Branch

Find more about criminal law and the criminal court process.

www.nccourts.gov

Faith Hedgepeth's dad watches as accused killer appears in court

"It's just a new beginning," said Roland Hedgepeth as he watched the man accused of murdering his daughter appear in court virtually on Friday.

abc11.com

Sept 17, 2021

He's being held on no bond and was appointed a public defender. On Friday, he was assigned a probable cause hearing on Oct. 7.

[..]

Authorities said DNA from the crime scene connected them to the suspect nine years later. But they didn't give details on whether Salguero-Olivares knew Faith Hedgepeth.

The murder suspect's past remains murky. A neighbor told ABC11 that Salguero-Olivares moved here from Guatemala.



Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/crime/article257547083.html#storylink=cpy

Sept 21, 2022

On Sept. 14, two days before he was charged with murder, investigators from Chapel Hill and the SBI got a DNA sample that had been obtained from Salguero-Olivares without his knowledge during a DWI traffic stop, the search warrant states.

The DNA was taken to the N.C. Crime Lab in Raleigh to compare with the evidence found at the 2012 crime scene.

[..]

In October, Salguero-Olivares’ attorney, Chief Public Defender Dawn Baxton, filed a motion to suppress evidence.

I believe he was of course initially appointed a public defender. And it is not uncommon

for Public Defender officers to contract work out to various firms. I don't know if that is the case here. I haven't seen anything.

In the Mollie Tibbets case, the defendant's family privately hired his defense attorneys.

 

[Webthrush]

Yes, MESO initially had a public defender, but last Sept. the Defender(s) requested to come off the case (I don’t know why?), and that became official in November I believe, which I assume is when the new attorneys officially took over — and, given the volume of evidentiary material here, I’m amazed that earlier this month they were already prepared to go to trial! (I assume they were already involved or very familiar with the case earlier on?).

 

[raiders444]

Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/crime/article257547083.html#storylink=cpy

Sept 21, 2022

On Sept. 14, two days before he was charged with murder, investigators from Chapel Hill and the SBI got a DNA sample that had been obtained from Salguero-Olivares without his knowledge during a DWI traffic stop, the search warrant states.

The DNA was taken to the N.C. Crime Lab in Raleigh to compare with the evidence found at the 2012 crime scene.

[..]

In October, Salguero-Olivares’ attorney, Chief Public Defender Dawn Baxton, filed a motion to suppress evidence.

I have been following this case for years, and admittedly have not been closely watching it as it waxed and waned over time so apologies if this was already discussed - but the link Seattle1 provided from the News Observer had some stuff in it i do not recall seeing here. Namely- the confirmation that they used forensic genealogy to track down MESO and then took a DNA sample at his traffic stop to confirm it was him. Now, what is unclear is, was that stop intentional or was he actually drunk and they stumbled upon it and the DNA matched. I guess that might be what the defense attorneys are trying to suppress. But up until i read that news item, i did not know that forensic genealogy was used. I had always hoped they would or that it was happening behind the scenes

 

[CADwrest]

I have been following this case for years, and admittedly have not been closely watching it as it waxed and waned over time so apologies if this was already discussed - but the link Seattle1 provided from the News Observer had some stuff in it i do not recall seeing here. Namely- the confirmation that they used forensic genealogy to track down MESO and then took a DNA sample at his traffic stop to confirm it was him. Now, what is unclear is, was that stop intentional or was he actually drunk and they stumbled upon it and the DNA matched. I guess that might be what the defense attorneys are trying to suppress. But up until i read that news item, i did not know that forensic genealogy was used. I had always hoped they would or that it was happening behind the scenes

My understanding of it is that they had him on their radar because of the genealogy research, and when they caught him driving drunk, that gave them a reason to do the DNA swab, which matched the crime scene DNA.
But in answer to your question, I think he was actually driving drunk, they didn't just stop him.

 

[Webthrush]

My understanding of it is that they had him on their radar because of the genealogy research, and when they caught him driving drunk, that gave them a reason to do the DNA swab, which matched the crime scene DNA.
But in answer to your question, I think he was actually driving drunk, they didn't just stop him.

My understanding as well…. and just as a sidenote, also my understanding at the time was that the forensic genealogy was NOT done by any law enforcement actually working the case, but was done independently by a Maryland officer who simply took an interest in the crime and then passed his findings on to CHPD. (but if anyone knows otherwise, correct me)

 

[faithx]

My understanding as well…. and just as a sidenote, also my understanding at the time was that the forensic genealogy was NOT done by any law enforcement actually working the case, but was done independently by a Maryland officer who simply took an interest in the crime and then passed his findings on to CHPD. (but if anyone knows otherwise, correct me)

I believe Chapel Hill PD hired Parabon NanoLabs to perform genetic genealogy, according to a tweet from their chief genetic genealogist CeCe Moore. Parabon also generated the DNA sketch of the suspect that was released in 2016.

 

[Webthrush]

I’ve seen a number of issues raised about Satana DeBerry over the 6 years or so she’s been Durham DA (including all of MESO’s time in prison), and FWIW just noticed TV station WRAL has done a couple of critical reports on her lately, in case anyone is interested:

Public records reveal Durham County district attorney comes to the office roughly half of work days :: WRAL.com

No consequences: Records reveal Durham DA's policy not to prosecute gun charges :: WRAL.com

Hard to tell for sure, but I’ve thought for some time that a lot of the reason for the slothful pace of this case falls in her lap.

 

[Webthrush]

Sorry, this has nothing to do with the Hedgepeth case, but since many of you live in the area thought maybe someone knows what the outcome was with this nearby odd death I just stumbled upon in Carrboro (from almost 1.5 yrs. ago):
NC - NC - Carrboro, BlkMale, 19-49, UP110826, Found in the back seat of a parked vehicle, Oct'23

I live very nearby (Al’s Garage is well known to anyone from the area), and don’t remember reading anything about this!… (also, a bit confusing since the short thread first IDs the victim as a Black male, but later toward end has listing as “White”??? Anyway, just curious if any of you locals know the finality to this brief sad thread?

 

[CADwrest]

This lands somewhat at random, but the thread's quiet, so:

I've been doing a bit of reading lately about people who were wrongly convicted, and came across the Norfolk 4 case from 1997. That case has some eerie similarities to this one: Woman raped and murdered in an apartment, no sign of forced entry, semen found at the scene, the actual killer not having an immediately clear connection to her, etc.

Big difference though in that the police ignored the DNA evidence and ended up arresting 7 men, eventually convicting 4. Some of them had airtight alibis (they were all sailors, and some of them were provably on duty at the time; others lived multiple hours away), but investigators interrogated them for hours on end and wore them down until they finally confessed. Even when they caught the real killer and matched his DNA, they were so invested in prosecuting those 4 that they came up with a story that the killer let them in and they all participated (even though some of them didn't know each other and none of them knew the killer). The killer, for his part, was adamant that he'd acted by himself, and all the evidence supported that.

I often wonder if, had this case happened 20 years earlier, or in a jurisdiction where police are under heavier pressure to mark cases clear and move on, if the more obvious suspects would have just been beaten down until they cracked, thrown in jail, and MESO would still be out walking around with no one even looking for him anymore.

 

[raiders444]

Maybe i just don't understand the criminal justice process but it seems we have the OPPOSITE of what you describe- one in which the DA cant be bothered to bring the case to trial!

 

[CADwrest]

Maybe i just don't understand the criminal justice process but it seems we have the OPPOSITE of what you describe- one in which the DA cant be bothered to bring the case to trial!

BBM

Yes, that's kind of my point. As much as the CHPD goes in for criticism for how they handled this case, they at least followed the evidence and didn't just arrest an easy scapegoat. Apparently, that happens quite frequently.

As to how long it's taking for the trial? Yep, very frustrating. It will be nice to see it one day, hopefully.

 

[borndem]

Indeed, CADwrest, indeed.

Getting back into this makes me think about her dad -- oh, how he must have loved her.

 

[girlhasnoname]

I believe he was of course initially appointed a public defender. And it is not uncommon

for Public Defender officers to contract work out to various firms. I don't know if that is the case here. I haven't seen anything.

In the Mollie Tibbets case, the defendant's family privately hired his defense attorneys.

Yes, the husband and wife team with the sweater wearing ninja kidnappers theory. Sheesh...to say that was a stretch is a bit of an understatement IMO.

 

[Webthrush]

NEW filings in the case! (pointing at Rosario)... some of it is interesting by the end, though some of it sounds like reaching for straws:
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/crime/article310166530.html

Can some legal-eagle out there explain how much, if at all, this delays any start to trial?

 

[CADwrest]

NEW filings in the case! (pointing at Rosario)... some of it is interesting by the end, though some of it sounds like reaching for straws:
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/crime/article310166530.html

Can some legal-eagle out there explain how much, if at all, this delays any start to trial?

IANAL, but I don’t think it delays the trial at all, it’s showing the trial is picking up steam.
The defense team is just putting their strategy on the table, which apparently is going to be that KR did it and framed MESO somehow.

They have to do these filings bc it’s up to the judge to decide how much leeway they’ll have to actually accuse her. For instance in the second Karen Read trial, the judge essentially said the defense couldn’t name certain people as alternative suspects, so they adjusted their strategy to just show JOK wasn’t killed by a vehicle like the prosecution was arguing.

Honestly this was pretty predictable. In a way I’m actually glad bc it’ll make the prosecution have to debunk the scenario.

 

[Skigirl]

I feel so bad for Karena (and Faith, and everyone who loved her, for obvious reasons). I hope that the trial or plea agreement eventually puts all of the innuendo to rest. The way she has been scapegoated reminds me a lot of some of the comments made about the surviving Idaho roommates. And their call also came hours later and sounded as similarly confused and shell-shocked as Karena’s did.

 

[CLGM]

Man charged with killing UNC sophomore Faith Hedgepeth faces new drug charges in jail

The man charged with killing University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sophomore Faith Hedgepeth did not appear in court Tuesday on new charges. The case will continue in September.

www.wral.com