After roughly three weeks of proceedings, a Durham County jury found Miguel Salguero-Olivares guilty of the first degree murder of 19-year-old UNC student Faith Hedgepeth in 2012. They also found him guilty of first degree rape, first degree sexual offense, and first degree burglary.
The jury made its decision after hours of deliberation on Friday — the first full day of deliberation after roughly an hour of deliberation on Thursday.
Salguero-Olivares slightly shook his head, looked to the gallery behind him and then discussed with his representation after the announcement was made.
On Thursday, Sep. 6, 2012, Hedgepeth and her roommate Karena Rosario went out for the night at a club in Chapel Hill called The Thrill. Rosario got drunk, and was later driven home by Hedgepeth who was acting as a designated driver. Around 4 a.m. the next morning, Rosario got picked up from the apartment by a fellow student named Jordan McCrary. Hours later Rosario was preparing to head to Friday classes and attempted to get in contact with Hedgepeth to make sure their apartment was unlocked, as they shared a key. She was then driven back to the apartment by their mutual friend, at which point she entered and found Hedgepeth dead in their shared bed. Someone had killed her using a glass Bacardi rum bottle and she died as a result of severe blunt force trauma. She was also raped by an unknown individual, as investigators found semen both on and inside her body. The case remained cold for nine years, despite investigators identifying a single DNA profile present on Hedgepeth’s body, the murder weapon, and other items found at the scene.
In 2021, Miguel Salguero-Olivares was arrested for drunk driving, at which point both a DNA sample and prints were taken by officers. The DNA sample was found by investigators to be a statistically significant match to the profile found across the crime scene, and he was subsequently arrested. He had never been named as a person of interest in the case by investigators before his DNA was collected.
The trial took place at the Durham County Courthouse, and Judge Keith Gregory presided over proceedings, and testimony began on Oct. 7. On the prosecution’s side was Assistant District Attorney Angela Garcia-Lamarca, Assistant District Attorney Brooks Stone, and Homicide and Arson Resource Prosecutor Lisa Coltrain. Salguero-Olivares’ defense team was made up of attorneys from Coleman, Merritt, Murphy & Rainsford, P.C., a Hillsborough-based law firm. Attorney James Rainsford took the lead on the defense.
The state charged Salguero-Olivares with two different types of first degree murder. The first is first degree murder in perpetration of a felony, which in this case is both the first degree rape and first degree sexual offense. The second is first degree murder on the basis of malice, premeditation or deliberation. The jury found the defendant guilty of both.
In North Carolina, first degree rape is defined as nonconsensual vaginal intercourse, while first degree sexual offense is any other kind of nonconsensual sexual act. The state brought evidence that Salguero-Olivares’ DNA was identified by investigators on a vaginal swab taken from Hedgepeth’s body, which is the basis of the first degree rape charge. The state also brought evidence that they found his DNA on an anal swab, which is the basis of the first degree sexual offense charge. Both swabs were specifically positive for the presence of semen. North Carolina legal precedent states if semen is found within either the vagina or anus, it is proof penetration took place.
His final charge was first degree burglary. In North Carolina, first degree burglary is the nonconsensual entering of an occupied dwelling at night with the intent to commit a crime. Even though Karena Rosario testified she left the apartment door unlocked, the state successfully argued Salguero-Olivares entering without consent fit the bill for first degree burglary.
The state’s case centered around DNA evidence, as well as prints found on items which experts found to be a match to the defendant. Latent print analyst Summer Maffett with the State Crime Lab testified on October 13 and 14 that in 2014, she found a partial left palm print and thumb print left on the blue Riesling wine bottle found in the bedroom where Hedgepeth was likely killed. Her testimony was followed by that of Erin Ermish of the North Carolina State Crime Lab, who testified to the statistically significant likelihood that the defendant’s DNA profile was a match to the previously unknown profile she found across the crime scene. The state also called former UNC students from Hedgepeth and Rosario’s social circle, a former coworker and distant relative of Salguero-Olivares who testified he dropped the defendant off at the Hawthorne at the View apartment complex, and the young women’s neighbor from across the street who held a cookout the night of Sep. 6, 2012, which lasted until the early morning hours of the 7th. In the state’s closing arguments, Garcia-Lamarca and Coltrain argued Salguero-Olivares attended the cookout, which was put on by fellow Guatemalan immigrants. They theorized that when Hedgepeth and Rosario returned from The Thrill, Salguero-Olivares approached the two young women and got into some form of verbal altercation which caused him to become angry. Feeling insulted, rejected, or both, the state said he entered the apartment and killed and raped Hedgepeth, before leaving a vulgar message written on a white takeout bag. The message reads, “I’m not stupid. Bitch. Jealous.” Coltrain brought up the fact that one of the state’s witnesses testified Salguero-Olivares was in English classes at the time, and posited that he got the order of noun and verb wrong in the message as a result of being a native Spanish-speaker. Thus, the message should have read. “I’m not stupid, jealous bitch.”
While the defense initially planned to call witnesses and enter its own evidence, the team changed tact, instead opting not to present a case so it could retain the right of last argument. In North Carolina, if a defendant’s attorneys don’t present any evidence, they are allowed to deliver closing arguments after the state, which typically gets the first and last word to the jury. In the defense’s closing arguments, Rainsford and fellow attorney Jason Murphy did their best to poke holes in the state’s case and identify potential inconsistencies that could lead the jury to have reasonable doubt. Although the defense was barred by the court in a pretrial hearing from arguing Karena Rosario was implicated in the crimes, they still pointed to pieces of evidence which may cast her in a suspicious light. Namely, McCrary told investigators and later testified Rosario had said she didn’t know why there was blood on her hands after he picked her up, referring to a red stain on her fingers. She said she did not remember having a conversation about blood. Both Rosario and the state argued this was the remnant of vomit, as she had been drinking red alcoholic drinks that night and red vomit was found in a trashcan at the crime scene.
Now that Salguero-Olivares has been found guilty, he moves on to sentencing.
This is a developing story and will be updated further.
Featured image via the courtroom press pool.
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