While a trial of the suspect in Faith Hedgepeth’s murder is still far off, the Durham County District Attorney’s Office filed a notice on Tuesday indicating one way it will approach the case.

The office of District Attorney Satana Deberry marked the case of 28-year-old Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares in Superior Court as “non-capital,” according to the News & Observer. The move means prosecutors will not seek the death penalty as punishment for the alleged crimes.

Durham authorities, in partnership with Chapel Hill police and state investigators, arrested Salguero-Olivares on September 16 for charges regarding the 2012 of Hedgepeth, who was a 19-year-old UNC student.

Deberry’s office made a similar move in 2019, the year she first held office, when considering a similar murder case of three UNC students. Instead of the death penalty, prosecutors successfully sought a life-long prison sentence for Craig Hicks, who plead guilty to killing Deah Barakat, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, and her sister Razan Abu-Salha inside their condo in 2015.

Hedgepeth’s death and case is slightly different, as authorities arrested Salguero-Olivares on first-degree murder charges nearly nine years after the 19-year-old’s murder. Police sought evidence and DNA matches in the case for years, with authorities saying Salguero-Olivares was not initially a person of interest in the case.

A file photo of Faith Hedgepeth, who died in 2012 at 19 years old.

Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares, 28, of Durham. (Photo via the Durham County Sheriff’s Office)

Hedgepeth was found beaten to death in her off-campus apartment near the Durham-Chapel Hill town limits on September 7, 2012. Hedgepeth was a member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribal community in Warren County, North Carolina and was a sophomore in college. Police later determined the murder weapon to be a Bacardi Rum bottle, which was cross-referenced with hundreds of different DNA samples to rule out suspects.

Deberry, as well as State Bureau of Investigations officials and local leaders with the Chapel Hill government, police and UNC gathered for a news conference on September 16 to announce Salguero-Oliveras as a suspect in Hedgepeth’s case. At the time, investigators described the homicide as an active and ongoing case.

Salguero-Oliveras is being held without bond in the Durham County Jail. His next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday, October 7.

 

Photo via The Davis Vanguard.

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