Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Hailey teen charged with grisly murder

16-year-old girl found dead in Hailey


By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer

Freddy Tellez

Fund established for victim's family

Hailey city employees have established a memorial fund for the family of Margarita Guardado, whose mother is employed at City Hall. The fund is intended to help the family with costs associated with the tragic death of Guardado on Friday, Aug. 17.

Donations can be made to any Mountain West Bank to the account of "Maria Mares Family Memorial Fund."

"Hailey city employees were grieved to learn of the tragic loss of fellow employee Maria Mares' daughter," says a Hailey news release. "Maria has been a cheerful and valued employee of the city for nearly 12 years."

A late-night liaison may have led to the murder of a 16-year-old Hailey girl, who's charred body was found next to a trash dumpster in southeastern Hailey last week.

Seventeen-year-old Freddy Tellez, whose home is within a few blocks of where the body was found, was formally charged with first-degree murder Monday and remained incarcerated Tuesday on a $2 million bond.

He is accused of killing Wood River High School student Margarita Guardado with a "metal instrument," possibly a carpenter's hammer, dumping a flammable liquid on her body and setting her on fire. Her badly burned body was found Friday morning near a trash dumpster at a home construction site at 3250 Mountain Ash in the Woodside area of Hailey.

Guardado, whose mother reported her missing Friday morning, lived with her family directly across the street from where her body was found.

Through our investigation, we have learned that the suspect and victim knew each other," Blaine County Sheriff's Detective Steve Harkins said at a press conference in Hailey Monday afternoon.

Harkins declined to elaborate, but a probable cause affidavit he filed with the court alleges that the victim was a "prior girlfriend and/or acquaintance to Freddy Tellez."

"From this investigation," Harkins further wrote, "I have learned that Freddy Tellez also made telephone contact with the victim on that night from his cellular phone. Records from Qwest communications confirm that the victim telephoned Tellez from her residence at 0134 hours the night of the murder."

The affidavit also reports that Guardado's mother had assumed that her daughter had run away after she discovered her missing.

A grisly crime scene confronted investigators Friday morning. A large pool of blood stained the roadway approximately 10 feet from where the body was found. The victim was face down on the east side of the roadway.

"The entire body was burned, more severely towards the chest and head portion," Harkins wrote in his affidavit.

Following an autopsy in Boise on Saturday, investigators concluded that Guardado died from severe wounds above her eye on the left side of her head that were inflicted before her body was burned.

"The approximate depth of the wounds was 2 to 3 inches deep," Harkins wrote in the affidavit. "I also observed numerous areas where the victim's skull had been broken and crushed."

Tellez appeared in Blaine County Magistrate Court Monday afternoon and was formally charged with first-degree murder, an offense in Idaho that is punishable to juvenile offenders of up to life in prison. He was also charged with use of a deadly weapon, a sentence enhancement that can add another 15 years to a convicted person's prison term.

Tellez, about 5 feet 3 inches in stature, sat quietly at the defendant's table, paying little attention to the near capacity audience that gathered for the proceedings. He wore a white sleeveless T-shirt and blue jeans, along with prisoner leg and arm cuffs.

He told Magistrate Court Judge Ted Israel that he understood the charges against him and requested the appointment of a public defender. The task was assigned to Hailey attorney Douglas Werth. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for 9 a.m. on Aug. 29.

Hailey police Lt. Jeff Gunter said Monday that the victim's mother is employed by the city of Hailey and is well known around City Hall. He said that the lead investigative role was assigned to the sheriff's office in order to preclude any conflicts of interest.

"This one's a little closer to home," Gunter said.




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