Judge Robert J. Elgee is irritated over delays by the Idaho state crime lab in processing DNA evidence for a Hailey murder case.
The delays led to postponement of the trial for 17-year-old Freddy Tellez, a Hailey teenager accused of killing his 16-year-old girlfriend last August in south Hailey.
"I'm not going to play footsies with the state crime lab," Elgee said in Blaine County 5th District Court Wednesday morning during a status hearing on the case. "We're going to get results sometime in December. If we don't, somebody's going to be in here explaining to me why not."
Elgee went a step further. He directed the Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney's Office to prepare a court order mandating that the DNA analyses be completed by the end of December. Furthermore, he directed that a subpoena be attached to the order requiring that someone from the state crime lab appear in Blaine County District Court on Jan. 8 to explain any further delays.
"If the lab tests are done before then, no problem," Elgee said. "We've already had one representation that they would be done sooner."
The state crime lab is operated by Idaho State Police in Meridian.
Elgee said he was reticent to postpone the trial, adding that he didn't want the crime lab to use that as an excuse of further delays. However, defense attorney Douglas Werth needs an additional two months once the state lab is finished with the DNA evidence so that he can have it analyzed independently at another lab.
Originally set to begin on Jan. 29, 2008, the trial is now scheduled for April 29, 2008. The trial is expected to last about 16 days.
Tellez has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing Margarita Guardado, a Wood River High School student, with a carpenter's hammer in the early morning hours of Aug. 24. He then allegedly poured a flammable solution on Guardado and lit her body on fire across the street from where she lived in the Woodside area of south Hailey.
Investigators believe jealousy was the motive for Guardado's death. Evidence suggests that she went on a camping trip to Redfish Lake with a 26-year-old Hailey man on the weekend before she was murdered.
Tellez is being held without bond. He has been incarcerated in the Ada County Jail in Boise because the Blaine County Jail does not have accommodations for juvenile prisoners.
The defendant appeared in court Wednesday wearing yellow Ada County Jail attire.
Courtroom security was tighter than usual for his hearing. The metal detector at the entrance of the building was activated, and Tellez was wearing a bulletproof vest under his jail garb.
There were only a few courtroom visitors, however. Tellez smiled and nodded to his mother and twin brother when he was led in arm and leg shackles to the defendant's table. He no longer sports the mustache and goatee that he had at the time of his arrest.
Freddy Tellez
