Defense says DA is fueling publicity she wants to stop in Faith Hedgepeth murder case
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Defense attorneys say Deberry's comments undermine her effort to limit pretrial publicity.
- DA Satana Deberry asked to seal future motions, citing concerns about defense filings
- Attorney James Rainsford argues sealing filings would deny his client a public trial.
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Faith Hedgepeth Murder
Faith Hedgepeth was a UNC sophomore when she was killed on Sept. 7, 2012. Her murder was unsolved until Sept. 16, 2021, when Chapel Hill police made an arrest in her case. Here are stories about Hedgepeth and the case from The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun.
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Attorneys for the man accused of killing UNC student Faith Hedgepeth say in a recent court filing that the Durham County district attorney is undermining her own effort to limit pretrial publicity.
The defense team’s criticism centers on District Attorney Satana Deberry’s request to seal all motions and orders leading up to jury selection in the trial of Miguel Salguero Olivares, who is accused of raping and killing Hedgepeth in her off-campus apartment 14 years ago.
Deberry told The News & Observer last month that she is making the unusual request amid intense coverage of each step of the case, including defense filings that contained “a bunch of falsehoods and allegations that were not true in them.”
James Rainsford, attorney for Salguero Olivares, wrote in a motion last week that he wants the pretrial filings to remain public. He argued Deberry’s statements appear to be doing exactly what she says she wants to prevent.
“The State’s above-listed statement is exactly the kind of action capable of improperly tainting the jury pool that the State claims to fear from Defendant,” Rainsford wrote in a filing last week.
A hearing on Deberry’s request is set for Tuesday afternoon. Rainsford’s filing highlights the increasing tension between prosecutors and the defense as the brutal killing of Hedgepeth moves closer to trial in four months.
The conflict goes back to motions filed on behalf of Salguero Olivares over the last year, raising questions about whether Hedgepeth’s roommate, Karena Rosario, was at the apartment when Hedgepeth was killed in September 2012.
In court filings starting in July 2025, Salguero Olivares’ attorneys sought to retest evidence and ensure Rosario could testify. In the filings, the defense team alleges she could have been at the apartment at the time of the killing and points out she had a drop of blood on her finger when she got in a friend’s car to leave.
Should the pretrial filings in the Faith Hedgepeth case be sealed?
In May, Durham County prosecutors asked a judge to seal future motions in the murder case, arguing that defense filings are distorting evidence as the case approaches a Sept. 28 trial date.
Last week, Rainsford objected to the request, arguing that prosecutors’ concerns do not outweigh his client’s right to a public trial, one of the oldest promises of the American justice system.
That promise does not begin when jurors take their seats, Rainsford argued. It extends to the pretrial motions and hearings that shape a case long before opening statements, determining what evidence reaches jurors and which witnesses are allowed to testify.
Sealing the pretrial filings and orders “withholds the proceeding from public view more effectively than locking the courtroom door,” Rainsford wrote.
Rainsford’s filing also says Deberry hasn’t offered any evidence or specifics about the falsehoods she alleged in the conversation with The N&O and in other hearings.
If the judge grants prosecutors’ motion to seal the pretrial motions after Deberry’s statements, “it would now be seen by the potential jury pool as the trial court’s endorsement of the State’s unsupported and unsubstantiated” allegations about the defense team, Rainsford’s filing states.
Deberry declined to respond directly to the allegations in the filing.
“The state will make its full argument on Tuesday, and we’ll let the judge decide,” Deberry told The N&O.
About the Faith Hedgepeth killing and arrest
In September 2012, police found Hedgepeth’s body in a Chapel Hill apartment she shared with Rosario, a fellow UNC student.
Hedgepeth, a 19-year-old sophomore, was found in the one-bedroom apartment hanging off the bed, tangled in a bloody comforter after being raped and beaten to death, court documents state.
Rosario told investigators that Hedgepeth was asleep when she left the apartment around 4:25 a.m. Sept. 7, 2012. About seven hours later, Rosario called 911, frantically describing finding Hedgepeth’s body and blood all over the pillows and a comforter around 11 a.m.
Nine years after the killing, Chapel Hill police charged Salguero Olivares with Hedgepeth’s killing. Police said they used DNA found at the apartment to identify relatives of Salguero Olivares, which led to him eventually being charged with Hedgepeth’s murder in 2021.
In 2024, prosecutors added burglary, rape and sexual offense charges, alleging Salguero Olivares broke into Hedgepeth’s apartment and raped her.
