Man Admits to Killing Two Women and an Unborn Child in Salt Lake County

Man Admits to Killing Two Women and an Unborn Child: Monday, a man pled guilty to three counts of aggravated murder relating to the 2006 and 2008 strangulation deaths of two women in their Salt Lake County apartments.

Juan Antonio Arreola-Murillo, 42, confessed to the homicides of Sonia Mejia and her unborn child on February 9, 2006, and of Damiana Castillo on February 9, 2008.

Arreola-Murillo stated in his plea agreement that he broke into the Taylorsville residence of the Mejia family in 2006 and strangled Mejia to death on purpose. He claimed Mejia was six months pregnant at the time of his actions, which resulted in the death of her unborn child.

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Man Admits to Killing Two Women and an Unborn Child in Salt Lake County

According to the plea agreement, Arreola-Murillo also acknowledged to illegally entering the Castillo residence in 2008, strangling Castillo to death, and burglarizing the residence only a few blocks away from the Mejia residence.

As part of the plea agreement, two counts of aggravated burglary and one count of aggravated robbery were dismissed against Areola-Murillo.

Three consecutive sentences of 20 years to life in prison are stipulated in the plea agreement. The sentencing hearing for Arreola-Murillo is scheduled for August 10. Now facing three counts of aggravated murder, a man who was sought for the 2006 and 2008 murders of two Utah women in Taylorsville has been apprehended.

Areola-Murillo was deported to Mexico after the 2008 homicide, before a conclusive identification of the perpetrator could be made, according to a statement by Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. In 2016, according to the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, the fingerprints collected from both homicides were identical.

According to Gill’s statement, on April 5, 2017, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office charged arreola-Murillo, who was serving a prison sentence in Mexico for a string of abhorrent robberies, with a crime. arreola-Murillo was serving a prison sentence in Mexico for a series of heinous robberies. Arreola-Murillo was extradited to Utah in January 2022, after serving his sentence in Mexico.