IAPE Evidence Blog

The Salt Lake Tri­bune, sltrib.com
BYLINE: Janelle Steck­lein The Salt Lake Tri­bune
Link to Article

Bland­ing, UT

Bold bur­glars broke into the Bland­ing Police Depart­ment and stole drugs and guns from the department’s evi­dence locker.

The stolen weapons, mean­while, all have been recov­ered — found by author­i­ties as far away as Salt Lake City.
Bland­ing Police Chief Lyle Bayles said that early Mon­day at least one thief broke a rear win­dow and entered the police depart­ment armed with a power grinder to breech the metal evi­dence door. The thief, who was in the build­ing for less than 15 min­utes, headed straight to the evi­dence locker and stole about 46 pounds of mar­i­juana, nine hand­guns, a cell­phone and a small amount of pey­ote, Bayles said.

By Fri­day after­noon, five peo­ple had been arrested in con­nec­tion with the thefts, and 11 guns were seized, along with stolen narcotics.

High­way Patrol Trooper Dan Altenes said two of the stolen weapons were dis­cov­ered Thurs­day morn­ing when two 21-year-old men were stopped for speed­ing on Inter­state 15 in the Salt Lake City area. In addi­tion to find­ing the guns, troop­ers seized about 5 pounds of mar­i­juana, cocaine and pre­scrip­tion med­ica­tion, he said.
“[The stop] turned into quite a trea­sure trove,” Altenes said.

The traf­fic stop also yielded a list of other sus­pects believed to be involved in the thefts, author­i­ties said.
Cedar City Police Sgt. JR Robin­son said offi­cers exe­cuted a search war­rant late Thurs­day at a home in Enoch and recov­ered the rest of the stolen guns and some of the drugs. He said offi­cers seized nine guns and about 20 pounds of mar­i­juana. Offi­cers arrested three peo­ple who live in the Cedar City area” Robinsonsaid.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org

The Asso­ci­ated Press, The Salt Lake Tri­bune, KSL Broad­cast­ing
Link to Article

Moab, UT

MOAB, Utah (AP) — A 43-year-old for­mer Utah police offi­cer has been sen­tenced to 30 days in jail for steal­ing $900 from his department’s under­cover drug account.

Edward Arvel Guer­rero was sen­tenced Tues­day in Moab’s 7th Dis­trict Court. A judge ordered him to begin serv­ing his sen­tence Saturday.

Guer­rero also has to pay $958 in fines and will spend the next two years on probation.

Guer­rero pleaded guilty in May to mis­de­meanor theft, and pros­e­cu­tors agreed to drop a felony bur­glary charge.

He was accused of break­ing into the Moab Police Depart­ment and steal­ing the money some­time between Aug. 15 and Oct. 6 of last year. Author­i­ties say the money was intended for mak­ing under­cover drug buys. 

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org

The Salt Lake Tri­bune
By Nate Carlisle
Link to Arti­cle

Salt Lake City, UT

But ex-BYU stu­dent must say why and how he killed classmate.

The man accused of mur­der­ing a Brigham Young Uni­ver­sity stu­dent in 1974 is “very likely” to plead guilty in the case, one of his lawyers said Tuesday.

One agree­ment under dis­cus­sion also would require the defen­dant, Ger­ald W. Hicker, explain how and why he killed 21-year-old Bar­bara Jean Rocky.

“There’s a pos­si­bil­ity at this point he is going to plead,” said Deputy Salt Lake County Dis­trict Attor­ney Vince Meis­ter. “What we’re talk­ing about as part of that plea is he will allocute.”

One of Hicker’s defense attor­neys, McCaye Chris­tian­son, said it is “very likely” her client will plead guilty. She did not say to what charge. Hicker is charged in 3rd Dis­trict Court in Salt Lake City with mur­der in the first degree, a cap­i­tal crime.

Hicker, 58, on Mon­day waived the remain­der of his pre­lim­i­nary hear­ing, essen­tially con­ced­ing there is enough evi­dence to pro­ceed to trial. Hicker is accused of shoot­ing and killing Rocky on March 11, 1974, in Big Cot­ton­wood Canyon. A util­ity worker found her naked body the next day.

No arrests were made until 2007, when re-tested evi­dence allegedly found a trace of Hicker’s DNA, plac­ing him at the crime scene. Wit­ness tes­ti­mony at a pre­lim­i­nary hear­ing ear­lier this year claimed Hicker, who was a BYU class­mate of Rocky at the time, dis­cussed set­ting up Rocky for a rob­bery because she roman­ti­cally rejected Hicker. A wit­ness also said Hicker knew how many times Rocky was shot with a pistol.

Hicker is sched­uled for arraign­ment Aug. 31. He has been in the Salt Lake County jail since his arrest in Novem­ber 2007.

ncarlisle@sltrib.com

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org