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A federal judge will allow prosecutors to introduce evidence from four more alleged sexual assault victims of the so-called vampire trucker, a Utah long-haul truck driver with a set of false vampire fangs who is charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge David Nuffer turned aside objections from an attorney for trucker Timothy Jay Vafeades and said presenting evidence from four other women about similar conduct is legally permissible at a trial scheduled for April of next year.
Instead of distracting jurors from the main issues of the case involving the two women, evidence from the four other alleged victims "directly supports a pattern and a propensity for the very crimes charged," Nuffer wrote in his Friday ruling.
Vafeades' attorney, Vanessa Ramos, did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Since Vafeades, 55, of Salt Lake City was arrested in March in Minnesota, the four other women have been identified as alleged victims, according to documents filed in federal court.
He faces charges of kidnapping, transportation for illegal sexual assault, transportation of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
The allegations from the six women span from 1994 to 2013, as Vafeades plied the nation's highways in his truck named "Twilight Express."
The alleged victims reported similar experiences of being held captive by Vafeades, who took their identifications and cell phones, forced them to shower with him and sleep naked, forbade them from looking at other people and beat them repeatedly while also sexually assaulting them almost every day, according to court documents.
He allegedly used a power tool to grind off the teeth of at least three victims, and on one he also used an X-Acto knife so she could wear false teeth. He also had his own set of false teeth with vampire fangs, documents say.
Authorities also found numerous images of child pornography on computer hard-drives confiscated from his truck, court documents allege.
Nuffer has previously turned down two motions to suppress evidence in the case.
Vafeades is being held in the Davis County jail without bail.