An attorney for an Ogden man charged in the bludgeoning death of his wife wants to suppress from the trial a statement his client allegedly made before her death.
The purported statement was made after O.J. Simpson's acquittal in the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend.Stephen Vargas, who is Hispanic, is accused of saying, "If a black guy can get away with killing his wife, a Mexican can."
In a hearing before 2nd District Judge Michael Lyon, defense attorney Martin Gravis argued the statement was inflammatory.
"It wasn't an admission he was going to kill his wife. It's purely a prejudicial effect," Gravis said. "That statement can be interpreted many different ways."
Vargas' trial on a charge of murder, a first-degree felony, was scheduled to begin next week, but was delayed until Oct. 25.
The body of Rebecca Weaver Vargas was found in December outside the apartment she had rented after leaving her husband. Prosecutors allege Vargas' obsessive relationship with his wife led to her death.
Weber County deputy attorney Sandra Sjogren said the alleged statement is part of the "trigger" of events that will show Vargas killed his wife.
Although Lyon did not make a ruling on that statement, he found sufficient cause to allow another statement Gravis wanted sup-pressed.
Vargas allegedly told an aunt two years before the murder of his wife that if she left him again, he would kill her.
"People say things all the time they never carry out," Gravis argued. "There's no evidence this was his state of mind."