OREM — A man left a message on Maritza Aguilar's cell phone the day she died and asked her to sell him drugs, police say.
At a Tuesday press conference, police said they believe that man was Seth Rollins Broomhead, 20, of Riverton.
Broomhead could face the death penalty if prosecutors can convince a jury that he was the man that met with Aguilar, 22, and Pablo Montoya, 20, behind an Orem greenhouse that evening last June and shot them in the head as he sat behind them in the back seat of Aguilar's maroon Honda Accord.
Broomhead is charged in 4th District Court with two counts of aggravated murder, a capital offense in Utah punishable by death. The minimum sentence connected with the charges is 20 years to life in prison.
This is the first capital case for Orem since Gary Gilmore was convicted of murdering two men in 1976 in Orem and Provo. Gilmore was the first death-row inmate to die in the United States after the Supreme Court lifted a 10-year ban on executions.
"I think the community is relieved," said Michael Larsen, Orem director of public safety. "I think the community is happy to have this over."
Broomhead's family is devastated, said Laura Procunier, who works at the Broomhead Funeral Home in Riverton. She said his parents, Ronald and LaRae, had no comment Tuesday.
"This is just too big," Procunier said. "It's overwhelming right now."
Larsen said detectives knew early in the investigation that Broomhead had called Aguilar. In fact, her cell phone records showed 10 calls from Broomhead's phone. Police say that during an interview, Broomhead admitted he left the June 13 message for Aguilar that he wanted to "order up some s---," a euphemism for drugs. But detectives couldn't tie Broomhead to footprints left at the murder scene or any other evidence.
"In the initial stages of the investigation, Orem detectives talked to Mr. Broomhead because they learned he was one of the last people to talk to the victims," Larsen said. "The evidence wasn't there to tie him to the homicides."
But Broomhead soon became a target of the Salt Lake Metro Gang Unit because he belonged to the Newborn Mafiosos, a new gang in the Salt Lake Valley. The gang engages in armed robberies of local convenience stores, said Juan Becerra, an FBI agent who works with the gang unit.
Becerra arrested Broomhead on July 12 in connection with a May robbery of a 7-Eleven store in Sandy. In court documents, Becerra said Broomhead confessed to robbing the store with an accomplice while a third man acted as a lookout.
Broomhead has been in federal custody in the Davis County Jail since his arrest. Meanwhile, Becerra said his investigation of the Sandy robbery eventually uncovered connections to the Orem murders.
Becerra contacted Orem investigators in late September after Broomhead's parents, Ronald and LaRae, showed him several cartons of their son's belongings. Orem Detective Barry Nielsen based a request for a search warrant of the Broomheads' home on Becerra's assertion that the cartons contained shoes that might match the footprints left in a field near Aguilar's car on the grounds of Cook's Farm and Greenhouse at 1645 W. 1600 North.
Aguilar was found dead inside the car. Montoya apparently was shot inside the car but managed to walk a few steps away before he died.
Police seized a pair of K-Swiss shoes, a shoe box, a cardboard box, a blue tote bag and two rolls of film during a Sept. 29 search of the home, located at 12590 S. 2200 West adjacent to the Broomhead Funeral Home. They also impounded Broomhead's black Jeep Cherokee.
Investigators and Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson declined to discuss other evidence, including whether Broomhead's shoes matched the footprints.
Bryson did say a third charge against Broomhead — theft by receiving, a second-degree felony — is related to the gun allegedly used as the murder weapon.
Larsen said law enforcement officials believe the motive for the murders was wholly drug-related. Eighteen baggies of cocaine were found hidden in a secret compartment in Aguilar's car. The drugs had a street value of more than $20,000.
Orem Police Lt. Doug Edwards said the couple, who lived together in Provo, died at about 6:30 p.m. on June 13. Their bodies weren't found by a greenhouse employee until the following day.
That time of death rules out information from a man who came forward and said he saw the couple engaged in a road rage incident just after midnight on June 14, Edwards said.
The federal robbery case includes an element of illegal interstate activity and could expand to include five or six robberies, said Leshia Lee-Dixon, an assistant U.S. attorney. If convicted, Broomhead would face a seven-year minimum mandatory sentence and $500,000 in fines.
Larsen said the murder investigation is ongoing and didn't rule out the possibility Broomhead had accomplices. The federal robbery indictment also names Jeremy Gerton and C.J. Lake as Broomhead's accomplices in that case.
Bryson said the capital murder case will take precedence and that Broomhead will be transferred to the Utah County Jail within the next week. A court date has not been set.
Larsen credited the FBI, the Metro Gang Unit and the U.S. Attorney's Office for helping Orem find a suspect.
"This case has been solved because of cooperation between several agencies," he said. "Without the information Agent Becerra received to begin with, we wouldn't be here."
E-mail: twalch@desnews.com