HEBER CITY — After six hours of helping his boss and a fellow ranch hand dispose of the body parts of Rex K. Tanner and June Flood, part-time ranch hand David Brunyer says he needed to talk.
He couldn't keep quiet about what he had seen, heard, learned and experienced that October 1998 day on a remote section of John R. Pinder's ranch, about 15 miles southwest of Duchesne.
Brunyer thought he'd be doing some welding for Pinder. Instead, he helped ranch hand Filomeno Valenchia-Ruiz wipe down Flood's ransacked home of fingerprints and blood, he told a 4th District jury Monday. Later that day he helped Pinder and Valenchia-Ruiz retrieve small pieces of bone and flesh that were strewn among sagebrush. He watched Pinder bury some of the body parts with a bulldozer while Valenchia-Ruiz burned some and tossed others into the river, Brunyer testified. He even saw a hawk swoop down and fly off with a small piece of flesh.
When Brunyer returned to his trailer that night, Oct. 27, 1998, he told his teenage daughter what had happened.
He asked her to write it down and tape the letter under her dresser drawer for police to find in case something happened to him. After sending his children off to stay with friends, Brunyer spent the next three nights sitting on his woodpile with his rifle.
"I was fearing for my family's life and for my own life," Brunyer testified.
Prosecutors will introduce as evidence the letter the girl wrote, which attorneys say contains a story that is "substantially" the same as Brunyer told jurors Monday. They will also call the girl as a witness to corroborate her father's testimony and to show Brunyer's story hasn't changed over the past 18 months.
She was scheduled to testify Tuesday but the trial was canceled for a day so attorneys could review notes the girl took during the conversation with her father. Attorneys only learned of the six pages of notes Monday night. Defense attorney Ron Yengich said the notes appear to be "substantially" different than the information contained in the letter.
Pinder's attorneys tried to get the girl's testimony and the letter excluded as evidence, arguing Monday that both are hearsay. Judge Lynn W. Davis, however, ruled the testimony and letter are admissable because Yengich challenged Brunyer's motives for testifying — inferring during cross-examination that Brunyer, because he is a witness in the Pinder trial, had received preferred treatment from prosecutors and the state in other legal proceedings.
Pinder, 42, is standing trial on two counts of murder, capital offenses, for the Oct. 25, 1998, deaths of Flood, 59, and Tanner, 48. Prosecutors allege he and Valenchia-Ruiz shot the two and then blew up their bodies in an attempt to cover up the crime.
Valenchia-Ruiz, 36, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of murder and is serving two terms of 5 years to life in the Utah State Prison. A condition of his plea bargain is that he testify in Pinder's trial.
Brunyer's testimony Monday revealed the prosecution's alleged motive for the crimes. Brunyer said that a couple weeks before the murders he watched Valenchia-Ruiz, at Pinder's request, threaten Flood and Tanner with a gun at Pinder's main ranch house. Brunyer said Pinder told him the two, former employees at the ranch, had stolen important documents from him that could cause him to lose the ranch.
"He was very enraged. He was very upset," Brunyer said.
Brunyer said that on Oct. 27, 1998, after wiping down Flood's home, he drove Pinder's fuel truck to a remote section of the ranch in Lake Canyon where he filled up Pinder's bulldozer. He then helped Valenchia-Ruiz gather up bones and flesh while Pinder operated the bulldozer. He listed for jurors the body parts he saw. He didn't tell Pinder and Valenchia-Ruiz what he saw, he testified.
Brunyer said he asked Pinder, while operating the bulldozer, what drove him to do this to Flood and Tanner.
"He said they were liars, thieves and maggots and now they are vaporized. He said no one will miss them anyway," Brunyer testified.
He said Pinder later yelled over the bulldozer's motor, "They were no good . . . and this is how much I love this ranch."
Pinder's attorneys say Pinder did not order the killings of Flood and Tanner, and they say Valenchia-Ruiz killed them and is pointing the finger at Pinder. They say Pinder simply helped dispose of the bodies out of fear.
Yengich solicited testimony from Brunyer that supports the defense's position that Valenchia-Ruiz was an out-of-control violent member of the Mexican mafia.
Brunyer said he had seen Valenchia-Ruiz pistol-whip another ranch hand about a month before the killings. He also saw Valenchia-Ruiz beat up his wife. He said that he had a conversation once with Pinder about Valenchia-Ruiz's violent temper. He even told police once that Valenchia-Ruiz was "itching to kill someone."
Valenchia-Ruiz will likely testify Wednesday afternoon.
If convicted, Pinder could face life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case is being tried in Heber City because attorneys believed they could not seat an impartial jury in Duchesne County.
E-MAIL: jimr@desnews.com