Lawyers debate exclusion of RVers from Salgado jury

ALEXANDRIA — A lawyer for accused murderer Alexander Salgado told a judge Wednesday at the Hanson County courthouse that patrons of a business allowing travelers to keep a South Dakota address should be included in the jury pool.

My Home Address Inc. is an Emery-based business that provides South Dakota residency for services such as vehicle licensing and voter registration, to customers including year-round RVers. The business collects mail for its customers and forwards it as requested.

Representing Salgado, lawyer Doug Papendick asked Judge Sean O’Brien to both quash the current jury pool and send notices to My Home Address Inc. customers who have been excluded from the jury pool.

Papendick said it’s unfair that the customers can enjoy the benefits of a South Dakota address, such as cheaper licensing for automobiles, yet be immediately stricken from the jury list because of their physical distance from the trial.

“They claim and reap all the benefits of being a resident of Hanson County, and yet they claim it would be a great hardship to come to Alexandria and sit as a juror,” Papendick said.

Salgado, 21, has been indicted for three felony charges — including first-degree murder — in the death of 16-year-old Jasmine Guevara, of Mitchell. He and a 15-year-old juvenile identified by authorities only as M.D. were arrested in November for the murder. They are accused of killing Guevara, placing her in the trunk of a car and lighting the car on fire.

Papendick said local residents make great sacrifices to serve as jurors. The same sacrifices, he said, should be expected from those with registered Hanson County addresses.

Including those with registered addresses would also lead to a fairer trial for Salgado, Papendick said.

“We have a client here who is obviously of Mexican descent and, in a sense, he feels like a fish out of water,” Papendick said. “If we draw from a pool of people from all walks of life … we feel that that would be more fair for our client.”

Hanson County State’s Attorney Jim Davies offered no objection to Papendick’s motion to include My Home Address Inc. customers.

As part of his request, Papendick called Ramona Schroeder, Hanson County clerk of courts, to the stand.

Schroeder told the court that a random computer selection of Hanson County residents initially produced 550 names. That list was randomly broken down to approximately 225 potential jurors. After receiving information about people who had either relocated outside of Hanson County — including RV’ers associated with My Home Address Inc. who stated they could not participate as jurors — or died, the final number was dropped to 81.

Papendick said as much as two-thirds of the 225 people could be associated with My Home Address Inc.

Members of the Old Rockport Hutterite Colony were also eliminated from the list of 225, because of a religious conflict with serving on a jury.

A ruling on Papendick’s request is expected to be issued later this week.

Also Wednesday morning, O’Brien ruled that Salgado’s trial will begin in July. The court also granted a motion by the prosecution to file additional motions as well as a motion to take an early deposition from Jay Goldhorn, a state Division of Criminal Investigation special agent who is scheduled to join his South Dakota National Guard unit for a one year overseas tour beginning on May 10.

Tags: our towns, alexander salgado, jasmine guevara, news, local, alexandria