National Roundup

West Virginia
Woman who tried to fake death pleads guilty
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia woman who conspired to fake her death at the New River Gorge has pleaded guilty to a federal charge, authorities said.

Julie M. Wheeler, 44, of Beaver faces up to five years in prison when she is sentenced in January for conspiring to obstruct justice, news outlets reported, citing a statement Wednesday from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Prosecutors said Wheeler admitted to conspiring with her husband, Rodney Wheeler, to fake her death at the New River Gorge by pretending she plummeted from an overlook as part of a scheme to keep her out of having to go to prison in a health care fraud case. Wheeler’s husband told authorities on May 31 that she had fallen from the main overlook at New River Gorge National River, prompting a massive search and rescue operation.

Two days later, West Virginia State Police found Wheeler hiding in a closet of her home.

Wheeler was sentenced in June to 42 months in prison for health care fraud related to overbilling and ordered to pay more than $289,000 in restitution, authorities said.

Wheeler’s husband is expected to go on trial in the case next month.

Utah
Tech worker pleads guilty in death of college student
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A tech worker pleaded guilty on Wednesday to strangling a Utah college student whose disappearance over a year ago sparked a search that ended with the discovery of her charred remains in his backyard.

Ayoola A. Ajayi acknowledged he planned the death of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck, whom he met on a dating app and arranged to meet in a park. After they returned to his home, he bound and strangled her, then burned and hid her body while police and loved ones searched for her, his lawyer said in court.

Ajayi pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and desecration of a corpse in an agreement with prosecutors that removed the possibility of the death penalty. Prosecutors dropped charges of aggravated kidnapping and obstructing justice.

Ajayi also pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a different woman he met on a dating app. He is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said the guilty pleas allow Lueck’s parents to begin to get closure and a “measure of justice.” Gill said the family has asked for privacy.

Lueck has been remembered as a bubbly, nurturing person who belonged to a sorority and was a part-time senior at the University of Utah studying kinesiology and pre-nursing.

She went missing in June 2019, after returning from a trip home to El Segundo, California, for her grandmother’s funeral. Lueck had met Ajayi, 32, on the site Seeking Arrangement, which bills itself as a way for wealthy “sugar daddies” to meet women known as “sugar babies,” his lawyer said. She took a Lyft to meet him in a park, prosecutors have said. Her phone was turned off a minute after the last text and never turned back on.

Ajayi planned the slaying before the meeting at the park and turned off the video in his home-security system before he left to meet her, his lawyer Neal Hamilton said. When they returned to his Salt Lake City home, Ajayi tied her up and began to choke her. She tried to stop him, after which he put a belt around her neck, pushed her onto her stomach and strangled her, the attorney said.

Ajayi then burned her body and buried it in his backyard, Hamilton said. After detectives came to his door to question him, he dug her up and buried her in a shallow grave in a canyon nearly 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Salt Lake City.

The search for Lueck went on for nearly two weeks before some of her remains were discovered in Ajayi’s backyard and he was arrested. He later revealed the location of her body in Logan Canyon, where she was found with her arms bound behind her.

A native of Nigeria, Ajayi held a green card that allows him to legally work and live in the U.S., prosecutors have said. He was an information technology worker who had stints with high-profile companies and was briefly in the Army National Guard.

Authorities have not discussed a motive for the killing.

Ajayi said little at Wednesday’s hearing and occasionally hung his head. He was wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, glasses and blue surgical mask. He is expected to be formally sentenced Oct. 23.

Ajayi also pleaded guilty to sexually abusing another woman he met on a dating app in 2018. They went to his house for dinner, and the abuse happened while they were watching television, he acknowledged. He pleaded guilty to forcible sexual abuse in that case.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed 19 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor related to child pornography allegedly discovered on his devices during the investigation into Lueck’s death.

New Mexico
State weighs court fees reform
SANTA FE, N.M (AP) — New Mexico legislators are considering proposals to reduce court fees and declutter courts in an effort to bring socioeconomic equity to the state’s justice system.

“We’re trying to achieve a consensus,” on potential legislation, said Angela Pacheco, a retired Santa Fe prosecutor and member of the New Mexico Sentencing Commission, which includes victim and prisoner advocates.

In a presentation to state legislators Wednesday outlining initial proposals, criminal justice advocate Monica Ault used the story of a previous criminal defense client to illustrate how court fines can snowball out of control, to the detriment of defendants and the courts.

In practice, many judges do offer payment plans. In recent cases available in public records, payments can be around $50 per month for low-income defendants.

But the New Mexico Sentencing Commission wants to make payment plans mandatory, and cap payments for both fines and fees at 2% of net income or a minimum of $10 per month.

The current fines and fee system is also costly, Ault told the Criminal Justice Reform Subcommittee. Citing a Brennan Center for Justice study of 2016 data, she pointed out that Bernalillo County spent $1.17 for every $1 collected.

“If you can’t pay for a lawyer, then you probably also can’t pay for other things,” Ault said. “So why do we task law enforcement to go after money that we know doesn’t exist?”

Ault said the fast-food worker she represents was only able to pay $50 toward his fine, and the court issued a $50 bench warrant fee “and the balance just kept going up every 30 days.”

Criminal Justice Reform Subcommittee Co-chair Sen. Sander Rue, a Republican, said he’s optimistic that the reforms presented by Ault could be brought up in legislation during the 2021 legislative session.