The Utah Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the child sex-abuse convictions of accused serial killer Roberto V. Arguelles.
Arguelles was on parole for unrelated attempted capital murder and aggravated sexual assault convictions when he posed as a security officer and sexually abused a brother and sister behind a West Valley elementary school in 1992.He is accused of killing three girls and one woman that same year, before his arrest for the elementary school incident. Arguelles, who has not yet been tried for the crimes, confessed earlier this year to killing Margo Bond, 42, and teenagers Vicky Martinez, Stephanie Blundell and Tuesday Roberts.
Arguelles is serving consecutive nine-years-to-life minimum-mandatory sentences at Utah State Prison for the two first-degree felony counts of aggravated sexual abuse of the children.
His attorney, Ronald Fujino, wanted the convictions overturned because his client's trial lawyer shouldn't have told Arguelles not to testify in his own behalf. Fujino also argued the trial judge failed to excuse a biased juror and kept testimony from the jury that could have helped Arguelles.
The high court rejected all of those arguments in its opinion released Friday.
Fujino was out of town and unavailable for comment. He had argued before the Supreme Court in March that Arguelles' previous lawyer, Robert Macri, wrongly advised his client against testifying at the child abuse trial because of prior convictions.
But the Supreme Court concluded that even if Macri had not offered such advice, there was no indication Arguelles would have testified anyway.
Fujino also claimed 3rd District Court Judge Kenneth Rigtrup erred by refusing to excuse a prospective juror, who indicated knowing the children involved in the case and their mother. Arguelles' attorney then exercised a peremptory challenge to remove the juror.
The high court said Arguelles would have to prove that Rigtrup's decision not to reject the juror would have prejudiced the panel.
The justices also threw out Fujino's argument that Rigtrup wrongly excluded certain testimony. During the trial, a police detective explained that he interviewed Arguelles, his girlfriend and his brother following his arrest.
Macri then asked the detective to recount those interviews, but prosecuting attorneys objected citing hearsay. The trial court sustained the objections.
"The record is silent as to what evidence Arguelles' counsel intended to adduce by his questioning," wrote Chief Justice Michael Zimmerman. "Accordingly, we decline to address the merits of Arguelles' claim that the trial court erred."
Arguelles is charged with four counts of capital homicide for the abduction-slayings of Bond, Blundell, Martinez and Roberts.
He told detectives he abducted and killed Bond in February 1992 outside the school where she worked as a janitor. Her body was found without Arguelles' help in a shallow grave in Tooele County four months after she disappeared.
A month after Bond's disappearance, 13-year-old Blundell of Magna disappeared while on her way to catch a bus for school. Her remains were unearthed in May from a grave in American Fork Canyon after Arguelles led investigators to the site.
Then, on March 30, 1992, Martinez, 16, and Roberts, 15, disappeared after telling their parents they were going to a mall. Arguelles led investigators to their remains a year ago in a ditch on a pig farm owned by his stepfather.