After 14 years, prosecutors lay out why they believe a stranger killed an NC college student

A jury found Miguel Salguero Olivares guilty of all charges Oct. 23, 2026. Read more here.

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More than 14 years after Faith Hedgepeth was found beaten to death in her apartment, prosecutors outlined for the first time Thursday what they believe motivated a stranger to kill the 19-year-old UNC student.

During closing arguments, prosecutors Angela Garcia-Lamarca and Lisa Coltrain offered their theory of what they said led Miguel Salguero Olivares to kill Hedgepeth, describing encounters and actions not established through testimony or evidence presented during the trial.

Before the presentation began, Judge Keith O. Gregory explained that the arguments aren’t evidence. Lawyers are permitted to argue, to characterize the evidence, and attempt to persuade jurors to a particular verdict, he said.

Garcia-Lamarca told jurors that Hedgepeth and her roommate, Karena Rosario, returned home from a local club around 2:40 a.m. on Sept. 7, 2012. Across the street, a group of people associated with Salguero Olivares were drinking at a cookout that had started hours earlier at a neighboring apartment, the prosecutor said.

Hedgepeth was helping Rosario, who didn’t feel well, get to their apartment when Salguero Olivares, seeing two pretty girls in the parking lot, approached them, Garcia-Lamarca said.

But Hedgepeth, protective of her roommate, shut him down, Garcia-Lamarca said.

“Are you stupid?” Hedgepeth responded, according to the prosecutor, sending him on his way as she helped Rosario upstairs.

Salguero Olivares was “angry, humiliated” in front of his friends, Garcia-Lamarca said. She told jurors he then unscrewed the gas cap on Hedgepeth’s car, leaving it hanging.

The two women went upstairs to their apartment, but Rosario — who testified she did not remember how she got there — left around 4:20 a.m.

She left the door unlocked, which was typical for the two roommates, who shared a single key to the one-bedroom apartment.

Salguero Olivares saw her leave and knew Hedgepeth was alone, Garcia-Lamarca told the jury.

“He was angry,” she said. “This happened because he felt stupid.”

After Rosario was gone, Salguero Olivares opened the door, walked in, and found a messy apartment with clothes strewn across the living room floor and bottles and other items covering the kitchen counter.

On his way to the bedroom, Salguero Olivares swiped an empty rum bottle and a blue wine bottle from the counter, arming himself for the crimes he was about to commit, Coltrain said.

He walked into Hedgepeth’s bedroom and dropped the wine bottle, Coltrain said.

Next, he ripped off her boxers and underwear and stuck a pantyliner to a nearby futon, she said.

Then he ripped her tampon out, throwing it on the floor. Then he decided to rape her and “leave his DNA all over her,” Coltrain said.

And then he beat her with the rum bottle, Coltrain said.

“He beat her. He beat her. He beat her. He beat her. He beat her. He beat her again and again,” Coltrain said.

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He beat her “until her skull cracked like an egg,” she said.

As Coltrain spoke, Hedgepeth’s friends and family began to cry, as small groups huddled, trying to embrace and support one another while remaining seated in the wooden rows.

Defense says the prosecutors’ theory “is ridiculous.”

Defense attorney James Rainsford called the prosecution’s scenario “ridiculous.”

“It doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

Rainsford questioned the prosecution’s theory that Salguero Olivares became so enraged after being rejected by Hedgepeth that he waited outside the apartment for one of the women to leave.

But in the meantime, he is going to unscrew the gas cap from a gas tank that Rosario testified opens from inside, he asked.

Instead, Rainsford, who has argued that the evidence points to Rosario’s involvement in the killing, suggested that Rosario told police about the gas cap as a possible way to explain why Hedgepeth might have left the apartment and returned after Rosario was gone.

“Now who does that benefit?” heasked.

Rainsford also challenged the prosecution’s account of a cookout outside the apartment that night.

Rosario testified that she didn’t see anyone outside when she was picked up around 4:25 a.m. Yet prosecutors suggested that people associated with Salguero Olivares were still gathered outside at the time.

Rainsford asked why those at the party would have done nothing as Salguero Olivares allegedly broke into Hedgepeth’s apartment.

“They just sat around and let it happen?” he asked.

Questions about the crime scene

Rainsford then turned to crime scene photographs showing a comforter and pillow covering Hedgepeth’s body, with her cellphone resting on top of the pillow.

“That’s what somebody who gets so outraged at being rebuffed in a parking lot as they break in and murder someone, but then they put pillows and put a phone down and then put a comforter over the top of the person,” he said.

Rainsford also pointed to pillows positioned against a wall, concealing blood behind them.

He argued that someone acting out of violent rage would not have taken the time to arrange pillows against the wall or cover Hedgepeth’s body.

Rainsford also questioned Rosario’s account of what happened after the roommates returned from a nightclub.

Rosario told police that she vomited in a trash can in the bedroom before going into the bathroom, leaving Hedgepeth in the bedroom. Rosario testified that she didn’t talk to Hedgepeth again, but Rainsford questioned why Hedgepeth wouldn’t check on her sick friend.

He also questioned whether Hedgepeth would stay in the bedroom without moving the trashcan full of vomit, which the crime scene technicians later described as creating a strong smell throughout the apartment.

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“There’s no way,” he said.

The jury will resume deliberations Friday.