UTAH STATE PRISON — A man who had a parole date set for a 1992 murder conviction before being sentenced for a second murder refused to attend his own parole hearing Tuesday.
Gary Hilfiker, 56, was already serving a life sentence for killing his girlfriend in 1992, when Unified police detectives announced in May that they had linked him to the 1989 cold case murder of a 71-year-old woman he used to transport in his taxi cab.
Hilfiker pleaded guilty to Flora Rundle's murder less than 30 days later, and in June was sentenced to his second term of up to life in prison.
Prior to being sentenced, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole had set a parole date for Hilfiker's first murder sentence for April 2022. In light of the new murder conviction, a recession hearing was held Tuesday.
But when a corrections officer went to Hilfiker's cell just before 7 a.m. Tuesday, he refused to attend the hearing.
Board member Jesse Gallegos, who conducted the hearing, said he would likely recommend to the full board rescinding Hilfiker's parole date on his first conviction.
No members of Hilfiker's family or the families of either of his victims attended Tuesday's hearing.
— Pat Reavy