Juan Antonio Arreola-Murillo pleads guilty to 3 murders – A 42-year-old man will likely spend the rest of his life in prison after admitting to killing two women and an unborn child in a series of slayings dating back more than 15 years.
Juan Antonio Arreola-Murillo formally pleaded guilty in Utah on Monday to three first-degree felony counts of aggravated murder in the 2006 killings of 29-year-old Sonia Mejia and her unborn daughter, as well as the 2008 death of 57-year-old Damiana Castillo.
Juan Antonio Arreola-Murillo, Sonja Mejia, and Damilla Castillo (Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office)Juan Antonio Arreola-Murillo pleads guilty to 3 murders
The murders took place on the same date — Feb. 9 — exactly two years apart. He will face sentencing on Aug. 10.
According to a press release from the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office, Arreola-Murillo was in the U.S. illegally and deported back to Mexico by authorities eight months after Castillo was killed, but before he was identified as a suspect in her murder.
It wasn’t until 2016 that investigators were able to match fingerprints recovered from both of the crime scenes with Arreola-Murillo. He was charged with all three counts of murder the following year, but he wasn’t able to face those charges in the U.S. at the time: he had been convicted in Mexico for a series of aggravated robberies and was serving time in prison there.
In January 2022, after completing his sentence, Arreola-Murillo was released from detention and extradited back to Utah to face the murder charges.
“Our office mourns the losses of Damiana Castillo, Sonia Mejia and her unborn child,” District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement following the plea hearing. “While perfect justice would mean that these three individuals would still be with us today, we hope that these guilty pleas can bring a semblance of justice and closure for these families. We would like to acknowledge Unified Police Department, West Valley City Police Department, and our prosecutors for their efforts on this case. We would like to also thank our partner agencies on extraditing Mr. Arreola-Murillo back to Utah to account for his crimes.”
