HEBER CITY — Duchesne County rancher John R. Pinder's former ranch hand told a 4th District jury how he feared for his own life after seeing his boss kill June Flood and Rex K. Tanner. Filomeno Valenchia-Ruiz also described how he helped destroy the victim's bodies with explosives.
"My boss shot them," said Filomeno Valenchia-Ruiz, who is serving a life prison sentence for his role in the killings.
Testifying Wednesday and Thursday in Pinder's murder trial, Valenchia-Ruiz said Pinder first shot Flood twice and then Tanner twice after the couple stepped out of his truck only seconds after driving them to a remote section of ranch in Lake Canyon about 15 miles southwest of Duchesne on the night of Oct. 25, 1998.
He said Pinder then turned to Valenchia-Ruiz and threatened to kill him with the .10mm-caliber handgun.
"I couldn't move. I was paralyzed from what I was seeing," he said.
However, Pinder then shot Tanner one more time while he lay on the ground, Ruiz said.
The two then dragged both bodies into the bushes.
Valencia-Ruiz testified that the two drove to a cave at the ranch where they retrieved about six bags of explosives and dynamite. They then returned to the site where the bodies lay, where Pinder put the bags of explosives alongside and on top of the bodies. As they drove away, Valenchia-Ruiz said he heard a loud explosion.
For the remainder of that night, Valenchia-Ruiz said he stayed in his room at the ranch house in fear.
"I was afraid he (Pinder) would come and kill me, too," Valenchia-Ruiz said.
He testified the following day he and Pinder burned Tanner's body parts in a barrel on a dump near the ranch house. Later that day, they returned to Lake Canyon and found more body parts, which they later placed in a barrel and blew up with explosives and dynamite.
Pinder, 42, is standing trial on two counts of murder, capital offenses, in the deaths of Flood and Tanner. Valenchia-Ruiz, 36, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of murder, first-degree felonies, and is required to testify in Pinder's trial as part of his plea agreement.
Attorneys for Pinder say Valenchia-Ruiz killed Flood and Tanner and is pointing the finger at Pinder to spare himself a life in prison.
Valenchia-Ruiz's testimony contrasted some with that of ranch hand David Brunyer, who testified Monday that Pinder bragged of killing Flood and Tanner but that both Pinder and Valenchia-Ruiz had threatened the two and both had displayed moments of anger and violence.
Valenchia-Ruiz told jurors that Pinder had threatened Flood and Tanner more than a hundred times. The ranch hand said he never threatened the two and said Tanner was his friend.
"He's a good guy. He's a good worker," Valenchia-Ruiz said.
The ranch hand also said Pinder was the violent one that night, not he.
Valenchia-Ruiz testified that earlier on the night of the killings he and Pinder were shooting guns at the grave site of Pinder's brother when Pinder hit him in the eye with the handgun.
"I was scared," Valenchia-Ruiz said.
He said later that night Pinder told him he wanted to take a drive to chat about some things. The two stopped at the home of Flood and Tanner.
Pinder, carrying a baseball bat, knocked on the door and the two were invited in by Flood. Once inside, Pinder began telling Flood and Tanner that he wanted to take them for a drive to talk. However, Flood and Tanner refused, Valenchia-Ruiz testified.
"My boss kept insisting that we go somewhere to talk but they said no," he said.
Pinder then struck Flood in the mouth with the end of the bat, Valenchia-Ruiz testified. Pinder also struck Tanner, who was sitting on a bed, with the bat in the upper leg in an area where Tanner had previously been injured.
Valenchia-Ruiz said that while Pinder was driving the four to Lake Canyon he waved a gun in front them.
"He looked like he had the devil," Valenchia-Ruiz said.
Defense attorney Ron Yengich was scheduled to cross-examine Valenchia-Ruiz on Thursday afternoon, where he was expected to argue Valenchia-Ruiz also had a violent side and that drug money Flood and Tanner allegedly owed Valenchia-Ruiz constitutes a motive for the murders.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com