HEBER CITY — Defense attorney Ron Yengich calls the Pinder ranch, southwest of Duchesne along the Strawberry River, a remnant of the Old Wild West.
While questioning witnesses the past two weeks in the murder trial of ranch operator John R. Pinder, Yengich uncovered testimony that fighting, heavy drinking, lying and drug use were common on the ranch.
Yengich, defending Pinder against two counts of murder, says circumstances of that "rough" lifestyle led to the deaths of Rex K. Tanner and June Flood.
Prosecutors allege that Pinder killed Tanner and Flood, former ranch employees, because he believed they had stolen from him documents vital to the ranch.
In opening statements Yengich conceded that Tanner, 48, and Flood, 59, were killed on Oct. 25, 1998, and their bodies blown up on a section of Pinder's ranch. However, he says the two were not killed and dismembered by his client but rather by Filomeno Valenchia-Ruiz — one of Pinder's main ranch hands.
Yengich told jurors that Valenchia-Ruiz killed the two over a drug dispute and intimidated Pinder into helping him destroy the bodies. Pinder was frustrated with drug use on his ranch and was trying to clean up the problem, the defense attorney said.
Valenchia-Ruiz, 36, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder last year for his role in the crimes and is serving a life prison sentence. He testified last week in Pinder's trial that his boss shot and killed Tanner and Flood and that he simply "accompanied" Pinder.
With state prosecutors depending mainly on word of mouth to support their claim that Pinder killed the two former ranch hands, Yengich began his task Wednesday of trying to discredit those words. He called witnesses who gave testimony indicating some of the prosecution's key witnesses might have been untruthful.
Scott Gardner testified that a couple months after the murders he was tending the children of Jenny Pinder, John Pinder's sister, when part-time ranch hand David Brunyer came over to visit.
Brunyer, a key prosecution witness, was the one who led police to body parts on Pinder's ranch. He testified last week that John Pinder admitted killing and vaporizing Tanner and Flood. He also testified that he was terrorized when he helped John Pinder and Valenchia-Ruiz locate body parts near a lake on the ranch.
However, Gardner said Brunyer talked of the gruesome deaths in a boasting manner. He said Brunyer admitted joking and clowning while searching for body parts, telling Gardner he made the statement "You're not having a good day, are you?" when he picked up Tanner's head by the hair.
"It was so grisly it disturbed me," Gardner said.
Gardner also said he witnessed Jenny Pinder and Brunyer embrace romantically and . He also saw them do drugs together. Brunyer had testified that he was no longer a drug user and did not have a relationship with Jenny Pinder.
On cross examination from prosecutors, however, Gardner said Brunyer never wavered from his position that John Pinder had killed Tanner and Flood and was attempting to set others up for the murders.
Ranch foreman Larry Rasmussen testified that he drove up on Brunyer about a week before the murders firing a rifle recklessly into the bushes near Jenny Pinder's trailer. He said Brunyer was so high on drugs that he claimed to be shooting at federal agents crawling through the brush in camouflage clothing. Later that day he found Brunyer again shooting arrows into a pond, claiming federal agents were hiding in the mud.
John White, a former Summit County Jail inmate, testified that former cell mate Newley Welch told him he was going to "snitch out" Pinder even though Pinder had not confessed the crimes to him. Welch testified last week that Pinder, while the two shared a cell together at the jail, admitted killing two people on his ranch.
Because prosecutors rested their case earlier than expected, no testimony will be heard the remainder of this week. Yengich will resume calling witnesses next Tuesday, the day he originally planned to begin his defense.
The defense attorneys have not revealed whether they will call Pinder to the witness stand to testify in his own defense. They do, however, plan to recall Pinder's girlfriend to the stand, however, who claims Pinder was with her the night Tanner and Flood were killed.
E-MAIL: jimr@desnews.com