‘Telling the truth’ Family member of defendant testifies in UNC student murder trial

Four witnesses testified Friday morning in the UNC student murder trial.

Forensic expert and DNA analyst Erin Ermish briefly returned to the stand for a quick round redirect and re-cross.

Eldis Cordero Ordonez, a man whose family member is married to a family member of Miguel Salguero-Olivares, then took the stand using an interpreter.

He testified that he moved to the US from Guatemala in 2007 and that he did not previously know Salguero-Olivares from Guatemala.

Ordonez testified his wife’s family lived in the Hawthorne at the View apartment complex, which is where Faith Hedgepeth and Karena Rosario lived.

He said he saw family and friends hanging out at a picnic table in the back of the apartment complex, which was near Hedgepeth’s apartment.

ADA Angela Garcia-LaMarca asked Ordonez about his previous statements to law enforcement about why he did not “hang out” with Salguero-Olivares.

“I heard that he used to drink and do other things, but I never saw,” Ordonez said. 

Ordonez also testified he had told law enforcement officers during previous interviews that he felt fearful about testifying, but he said he felt “comfortable” in the courtroom because he was “telling the truth.” 

Another witness, Luis Lainez Lopez, also testified using an interpreter. 

He lived in the Hawthorne at the View, and he organized a cookout the night of September 6th, 2012.

Lopez identified the picnic table near Hedgepeth’s building as the location of the cookout, and listed attendees, many of whom were also from Guatemala and some of whom also worked at Outback Steakhouse. 

He testified one attendee, Abel, brought a friend who he did not know and could not remember. 

Lopez said he did not recognize Salguero-Olivares in the courtroom; when ADA Brooks Stone asked if he could have been the person Abel brought to the cookout, the defense objected.  

The judge overruled that objection, and Lopez replied “I don’t remember.”

Lopez testified that Abel’s friend who attended spoke Spanish, and that he and Abel left by walking when the party broke up in the early morning hours.  

Durham Chief of Detention Services Justin Ellberbe also took the stand briefly; he testified to the existence of recordings of the defendant’s jail calls; those were not played in court.  

SBI Special Agent Justin Heinrich will be the state’s first witness in the afternoon session.