A Blaine County grand jury indicted a Hailey teenager Monday on a charge of first-degree murder.
The indictment against 17-year-old Freddy Tellez was unsealed Tuesday afternoon at arraignment proceedings in Blaine County 5th District Court in Hailey. Tellez is accused of killing 16-year-old Margarita Guardado with a carpenter's hammer on Friday, Aug. 17, and burning her body across the street from where she lived on Mountain Ash in the Woodside area of Hailey.
Tellez was also indicted on a charge of destruction of evidence.
Speaking through his attorney, public defender Douglas Werth, he pled not guilty to the charges.
Funeral services were held on Friday, Aug. 24, for Guardado at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Hailey. (See related story on Page A25). Guardado would have been a junior this year at Wood River High School.
A grand jury convened Monday morning in Hailey to hear evidence in the homicide case against Tellez. In an unusual procedure, the same grand jury also heard evidence in a rape case against Neftali Olmos, a 22-year-old man who lives south of Bellevue. Olmos was also indicted by the grand jury. (See related story on Page A5.)
Tellez, a former Wood River High School student, remained incarcerated Tuesday without bond.
"This is a murder case," said presiding judge Robert J. Elgee. "In my view he's not entitled to bond."
Jury trial is scheduled for Jan. 29, 2008. Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Thomas said the trial will likely last for three to four weeks.
In another development, Blaine County Sheriff's Office investigators obtained a warrant last week to take DNA, blood, hair and fingernail clipping samples from the defendant.
Freddy Tellez
