Miguel Salguero Olivares, who was convicted of killing University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student Faith Hedgepeth, filed a notice of appeal on Friday, Oct. 30, according to an electronic court docket. The filing came one week after his conviction and sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Salguero Olivares, 33, was found guilty on Oct. 23 of first-degree murder, rape, sexual offense and burglary. The jury reached its verdict after deliberations that lasted six hours across two days. His appeal notice follows a trial in which prosecutors presented testimony from nearly two dozen witnesses.
Hedgepeth was 19 and in her sophomore year at UNC-Chapel Hill when she was beaten to death in September 2012. She was killed in the apartment where she lived off campus. Nine years passed between her death and the arrest of Salguero Olivares.
The arrest followed a traffic stop for driving while impaired, after which Salguero Olivares provided a DNA sample. Prosecutors said that sample matched evidence collected from the scene of Hedgepeth's killing. The DNA connection was among the evidence presented to jurors as they considered the charges against him.
During their closing arguments, prosecutors emphasized the extent of the DNA evidence at the apartment, telling jurors that Salguero Olivares had left his DNA throughout the crime scene. Some members of the jury later described that evidence as the reason they were convinced he was guilty.
Those jurors spoke exclusively with ABC11 during the week following the verdict. Their accounts pointed to the DNA evidence as persuasive in their decision to convict Salguero Olivares of the charges arising from Hedgepeth's death.
Salguero Olivares did not take the witness stand during the trial. His defense attorneys concluded their case without calling witnesses. The prosecution's witnesses included crime scene technicians, officers from state and local law enforcement agencies, a DNA expert and friends of Hedgepeth.
After the verdict on Oct. 23, officials and members of Hedgepeth's family gathered for a news conference at the Durham County Courthouse. Durham County District Attorney Satana Deberry, members of the prosecution team, the Chapel Hill police chief and relatives of Hedgepeth were among those who spoke.
