Judge hears arguments on sealing pretrial motions in the Faith Hedgepeth murder case
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Judge Keith Gregory continued the hearing and did not rule immediately.
- Prosecutors sought sealing due to media influence and detailed defense filings.
- Defense said details were needed to seek an out-of-state court's extraordinary writ.
How much of the legal battle leading up to the Faith Hedgepeth murder trial will play out in public remained undecided Tuesday after a judge declined to immediately rule on whether pretrial motions and orders should be sealed.
Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory said the hearing on the prosecution’s motion to seal the pretrial motions will continue on Thursday morning, when he will likely hear other matters related to the case.
His decision came after prosecutors and defense attorneys offered competing views on how potential jurors could be influenced by information about the killing of Hedgepeth, a UNC sophomore, nearly 14 years ago.
Lisa Coltrain, a special prosecutor with the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys working with the Durham County District Attorney’s Office on the case, argued that all pretrial motions need to be sealed to prevent the jury from being influenced by intense media coverage.
In addition, Coltrain argued that defense team motions contained “extraneous and unnecessarily detailed” information that is largely inadmissible, incomplete, and “whether intentional or not, cast dispersions on the prosecutors’ witnesses,” specifically, Hedgepeth’s former roommate, Karena Rosario.
Coltrain’s concerns center on motions filed on behalf of Miguel Salguero Olivares, who is charged with raping and killing Hedgepeth on Sept. 7, 2012.
In court filings starting in July 2025, his attorneys sought to retest evidence and ensure Rosario could testify. In the filings, they allege Rosario could have been at the apartment at the time of the killing and that she appeared to have a drop of blood on her finger when she got in a friend’s car to leave.
Coltrain pointed to a filing by the defense team as they sought to ensure Rosario would attend the trial. All the filing needed to say was that she is an essential witness who called 911, found Hedgepeth’s body, was the last person to see Hedgepeth alive, and that the crime occurred in Rosario’s apartment.
“Instead we have 131 statements from the defense that are incredibly detailed and, again, distorted, incomplete,” Coltrain said.
Coltrain pointed out a number of concerns about the statements, including one that highlighted Rosario had what appeared to blood on her finger when she was picked up around 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 7, 2012, the morning of the killing.
“However, again, what’s left out of this motion is that in subsequent interviews, Karina very clearly stated she had been vomiting red slushies, and that’s probably what it was,” Coltrain said.
James Rainsford, an attorney for Salguero Olivares, however, said he included the detailed information in the filing, because the defense must take steps to ensure that a judge grants an extraordinary request to require witnesses who live out of state be available for a North Carolina trial that is expected to take weeks.
He included the information that he felt was relevant, he said and added if he had included other alleged facts about the evidence, it would have been another 100 pages.
In addition, Rainsford pointed out that the discussion doesn’t take into account the previous coverage of Hedgepeth’s killing, including an ABC interview by the police chief, now cited on a Wikipedia page about the killing.
“I feel like we’re coming to court here today, and the narrative that has been presented is there was a filing that has presented a false impression of this case to the media, while ignoring everything that exists out there,” Rainsford said.
“I still haven’t heard a statement in any of the press conferences, in the initial press conference, that the defendant is presumed innocent,” he said.
This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 6:27 PM.
