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SALT LAKE CITY — Sixteen years after Richard Leetham was shot and killed, his body abandoned near Little Cottonwood Canyon, charges were filed in his death.
On Tuesday, Jose Leyva-Padilla, the man charged in Leetham's 1994 slaying, was ordered to prison by 3rd District Judge Deno Himonas. Leyva-Padilla, 41, was sentenced to two to 15 years in prison for manslaughter, a second-degree felony.
Leyva-Padilla pleaded guilty to the charge, which was amended to manslaughter from first-degree felony murder, in February. Additional counts of aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping, first-degree felonies, were dismissed in exchange for his plea.
According to testimony in a 2011 hearing on the evidence, Leetham, 35, disappeared on Aug. 17, 1994, when he left home to write a report for a class at Salt Lake Community College and never returned. Months later, Leetham's body was found near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon.
He had died from an apparent gunshot wound.
Leetham's truck was tracked down in Tijuana, Mexico, and Leyva-Padilla was arrested in connection with Leetham's death. Marco Frescas-Hernandez testified in 2011 that he was in custody with Leyva-Padilla in the fall of 1994 and that Leyva-Padilla talked about killing Leetham on more than on occasion.
Related:
Man accused in 1994 cold case shooting 'bragged' about the slaying at the time
The day Richard Leetham disappeared, he had plans to write a report for one of his classes at Salt Lake Community College."He told everybody in the tank," Frescas-Hernandez said. "He was bragging that he took (Leetham) up somewhere and smoked him."
Leyva-Padilla's girlfriend in 1994 also testified that he showed up at her house the afternoon of Aug. 17, 1994, with Leetham's truck.
Leyva-Padilla was charged in 2010. After charges were filed, police said detectives working on the case in 1994 had all of the information but prosecutors at the time believed there wasn't enough evidence to charge Leyva-Padilla.
When the investigation was reopened in 2008, enough additional information was gathered to warrant charges. Email: emorgan@deseretnews.com Twitter: DNewsCrimeTeam
