The Salt Lake County prosecutor is challenging the legal representation of Roberto Arguelles because his attorney works with a potential prosecution witness.
Arguelles, 34, confessed last month to the abductions and slayings of three girls and a woman in 1992.Public defender Bob Steele was present during that confession, which Arguelles made over seven emotional hours at the Utah State Prison. Steele is a member of the Salt Lake County Public Defenders Association, which is representing Arguelles.
Kent Morgan, assistant Salt Lake County District Attorney, told Senior Judge Douglas Cornaby in 3rd Circuit Court Tuesday that he may want to call Steele as a witness during Arguelles' prosecution.
It would be a conflict for another member of Steele's law firm to represent Arguelles, he told the judge. "It could reverse the whole case," Morgan said outside the courtroom.
Although Steele said that his presence during the confession was unusual, that does not mean it is a conflict of interest. He noted there were others resent during the confession who could be called to testify.
He noted there's no dispute among the witnesses about what was said.
Morgan is also challenging the fact that a public defender's office investigator in the Arguelles case who once helped successfully prosecute Arguelles.
Virgil Johnson, a former county sheriff's deputy who handled a 1980 case against Arguelles, now works for the public defenders office.
Karen Stam, Arguelles' attorney, said, "We intend to represent him without a conflict of interest."
Cornaby set a July 9 hearing on the matter.
Arguelles is charged with four counts of capital homicide for the abduction-slayings. He was arraigned on the charges last week in 3rd Circuit Court.
The convicted sex-offender told investigators and his attorneys that he is remorseful and wants to die for his crimes.
Arguelles has told detectives he abducted and killed Margo Bond, 42, in February 1992 outside the school where she worked as a janitor.
Bond's body was found without Arguelles' help in a shallow grave in Tooele County, 45 miles west of Salt Lake, four months after she disappeared.
A month after Bond's disappearance, 13-year-old Stephanie Blundell of Kearns disappeared while on her way to catch a bus for school. Her remains were unearthed last weekend from a grave in American Fork Canyon after Arguelles led investigators to the site.
Then, on March 30, 1992, two young friends - Lisa Vicky Martinez, 16, and 15-year-old Tuesday Malisa Roberts - disappeared after telling their parents they were going to a mall. Arguelles led investigators to their remains last July in a ditch on a pig farm owned by his stepfather.
Arguelles was on parole when the slayings occurred. He had served 11 years for attempted murder and aggravated sexual assault for raping two teen-age girls.
He is currently serving consecutive nine-years-to-life sentences for molesting a brother and sister, ages 11 and 8, behind a school in December 1992.