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A Utah woman testified Thursday that she heard arguing one night last July while in her basement bedroom in the West Valley City house where she was living, followed by three shots.
Jessica Gallegos said she went to investigate and saw Steven Louis Valdez, who she described as "brutally beaten," lying on a bed in an upstairs bedroom.
"His face was demolished," she said. "He didn't look like himself."
Also in the room were Bernadette Josette Ramirez and Arturo Frias-Gonzales, who were holding guns, and Eddie Salazar, who had a tire iron in his hand, according to Gallegos. When Ramirez saw her, she pointed the gun at her, Gallegos said, and as she fled down the stairs, two shots were fired in her direction.
Gallegos was testifying at a preliminary hearing in 3rd District Court for Ramirez, Frias-Gonzales and Salazar, who are accused of killing the 63-year-old Valdez. Police responding at about 1:15 a.m. July 25 to reports of shots fired found Valdez dead at his home at 4150 S. Bluejay St. (4885 West).
The preliminary hearing, which is being held to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed to a trial, is scheduled to continue before Judge Katie Bernards-Goodman next Thursday.
Frias-Gonzales, 35, Ramirez, 47, and Salazar, 41, are charged with first-degree felony counts of murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping in connection with Valdez's death.
Ramirez — who lived in the house — also is charged with an additional count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of child kidnapping, both first-degree felonies, and second-degree felony obstructing justice. Salazar also is charged with second-degree felony aggravated assault.
Charging documents say an autopsy showed Valdez died from a gunshot wound in the leg and blunt force trauma in the head consistent with being hit with a tire iron.
Gallegos, 23, said she was not related to Valdez, who was Ramirez's uncle, but called him by his nickname of Uncle Beav.
She testified that before the three shots were fired, she heard Ramirez accuse Valdez of stealing large amounts of money from her and that "Steven would say that he didn't do anything, that he didn't take nothing."
Gallegos said that after she left the bedroom, she got her infant son from her room in the basement, ran back upstairs and escaped through a window. As she was running down the driveway with her baby in her arms screaming for help, she encountered Ramirez, who told her to get into an SUV or she would kill her, according to Gallegos. She said Ramirez went back inside to get Frias-Gonzales and then the three left.
As they were driving around, Ramirez told her to say Valdez had been killed by three masked men and that Ramirez and Frias-Gonzales had been in Wendover, Gallegos testified.
"She was going to kill me and my son if I didn't say that," Gallegos said.
Ramirez and Frias-Gonzales dropped her off at a market and her father and sister picked her up and brought her back to Valdez's home, where she talked to police, she said.
Gallegos said she initially told authorities three masked men had killed Valdez, but told them the truth after police found drugs in a vehicle they stopped on Oct. 26, which Ramirez was driving and in which Gallegos was a passenger. Gallegos said prosecutors told her they wouldn't charge her if she helped homicide detectives.
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