HEBER CITY — Duchesne County rancher John R. Pinder took the witness stand Wednesday morning and said he did not kill Rex K. Tanner and June Flood.
However, Pinder said he did participate in disposing of their bodies.
Pinder, 42, standing trial for two counts of murder, capital offenses, is accused of killing Tanner and Flood Oct. 25, 1998, and blowing up their bodies. Prosecutors allege he killed the two for stealing documents from him that were vital to his ranch. They allege Pinder went to Flood's home, beat her and Tanner with a bat, drove them to a remote area of his ranch where he shot them and later blew them up.
Wednesday Pinder denied going to Flood's home and beating them.
"I never hit anyone with a bat," Pinder said.
Pinder acknowledged he was upset at Flood for assisting his wife in stealing documents from him. But, he said, he was not mad enough to kill her.
"Not even close," he said.
Pinder also said he was mad at Tanner at times but liked Tanner and considered him a friend.
Pinder said he was afraid of ranch hand Filomeno Valenchia-Ruiz, whom he hired because Valenchia-Ruiz provided him drugs and introduced him to other drug dealers.
"I knew he was a dangerous person," Pinder said.
Pinder also testified Tanner and Flood were buying drugs from Valenchia-Ruiz and that Tanner might have owed Valenchia-Ruiz money.
Defense attorney Ron Yengich alleges Valenchia-Ruiz is solely responsible for the deaths of Tanner, 48, and Flood, 59, and intimidated Pinder into helping him attempt to cover up the crimes. Body parts of both were found strewn among sagebrush and buried on a section of Pinder's ranch, about 15 miles southwest of Duchesne.
Valenchia-Ruiz pleaded guilty to two counts of murder for his role in the killings.
On Tuesday, Pinder's alibi that he was home the night Tanner and Flood were killed was reinforced just a bit.
The strength of that reinforcement, however, depends on the weight jurors give the testimony of Pinder's accountant, whose testimony Tuesday varied some from statements he gave investigators during three prior interviews.
Joe Wallen testified he never saw Pinder leave the ranch house the night Tanner and Flood were killed. He said that while he visited and drank that night with Barbara DeHart, Pinder's girlfriend, Pinder came in and out of the room. However, he said Valenchia-Ruiz left for a few hours, driving off in Pinder's truck.
Prosecutors allege Pinder, 42, shot the two former ranch employees and the blew up their bodies with explosives. He is standing trial on two counts of murder, capital offenses, and nine other felony charges.
Wallen's testimony corroborates that of DeHart, who testified earlier in the trial that Pinder remained at the ranch house with her the night Tanner and Flood were killed.
Wallen, testifying in the third week of Pinder's trial, said Valenchia-Ruiz told him a few days before the killings that he had a dream he killed three people.
"He told me his dreams always come true," Wallen said.
The bookkeeper also said Valenchia-Ruiz and Pinder had an argument that night over the ranch hand leaving the cage door open to Pinder's pet lion. He said Valenchia-Ruiz, who had been drinking heavily all day, shoved Pinder right before leaving the house.
On cross examination, however, Wallen admitted giving police a different timeline in three other interviews. In those statements, Wallen told police that the argument over the lion cage door happened two days after Tanner and Flood were killed. More important, he told investigators in those interviews that Pinder could have left the ranch house that night and he would not have known it. He admitted telling detectives "I can't give John an alibi." Wallen also said he told detectives that he saw a few sticks of dynamite in Pinder's truck the next day.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com