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  • Man faces murder trial for role in home invasion

August 14, 2007 (Salt Lake City, UT) – A man who allegedly helped plan a 1995 home-invasion robbery that ended in the death of a 17-year-old Salt Lake County boy was ordered to stand trial for murder following a Monday preliminary hearing.

Rodrigo Ojeda-Gervacio, 34, is charged with first-degree felony murder for his part in the Oct. 31, 1995, shooting death of Arian Salguer Huerta. Ojeda-Gervacio - arrested last year in Toronto - is one of four people charged in connection with the botched plan to steal money and drugs from Huerta's apartment.

The triggerman, Williams Rodriguez, 30, was sentenced last year to prison for up to life after pleading guilty to first-degree felony murder. Patricia Bencomo, 34, who helped plan the robbery, pleaded guilty last year to second-degree felony obstruction of justice and was sentenced to probation and 30 days in jail.

The whereabouts of a fourth suspect, 47-year-old Jesus Gandarill Candaria, is unknown.

The three men entered Huerta's apartment hoping to steal three kilograms of cocaine, a pound of marijuana and $4,000, according to prosecutors. When Huerta and 21-year-old Evarado Camorlinga began fighting with the robbers, Rodriguez began shooting. He shot Huerta in the back, Camorlinga in the buttocks and himself in the foot.

The case went unsolved until 2005, when a retired sheriff's officer heard that one of the suspects had made admissions to someone else.

Ojeda-Gervacio is to appear for a scheduling hearing on Aug. 24 before 3rd District Judge Deno Himonas.

-By Stephen Hunt, The Salt Lake Tribune

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