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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Court of Appeals won't allow a Fort Duchesne man serving time for murder to withdraw a guilty plea admitting to raping a woman he followed off a bus.
Jesse Anthony Saenz, 26, pleaded guilty in June 2013 to grabbing a woman he followed off a shuttle bus the previous summer, then dragging her into nearby field where he beat and raped her. A man living in the area heard the woman's screams and called police, who found Saenz and used a Taser to subdue him.
At sentencing, the women asked for a maximum sentence for Saenz.
"I knew that I was going to die in that field," the woman told the judge.
"I thought about my kids," she said. "My grief was overwhelming for them. They were going to grow up without me, and their mother's body would be found in the bushes."
Factoring in Saenz's history of two additional sexual assaults as a juvenile, 8th District Judge Clark McClellan handed down an enhanced sentence of 25 years to life for Saenz in August 2013, which prosecutors said was appropriate despite their plea agreement with Saenz to recommend 15 years to life.
The lengthy sentence was later found to be improper and McClellan stepped it back to 15 years to life, but did not allow Saenz to withdraw his guilty plea.
In a ruling Friday, the Utah Court of Appeals upheld that decision.
"The district court did not have jurisdiction to consider Saenz's motion to withdraw his guilty plea; it did, however, appropriately correct Saenz's sentence after its illegality was brought to the court's attention. By doing so, the district court provided Saenz with the only remedy available for an alleged breach of the plea agreement," senior appellate judge Pamela Greenwood wrote in the decision.
Saenz's family posted a $64,000 bail in March 2013, securing his release while he faced the rape charge. Just over a month later, he shot and killed 22-year-old Elvis Zachary Olsen, a man he met while in jail. A jury found Saenz guilty of the slaying in June 2014.
Saenz was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for first-degree felony murder, as well as two terms of one to 15 years for theft and possession of a firearm by a restricted person, second-degree felonies. The sentences are consecutive, but run concurrently to the sentence handed down in the sexual assault case.
The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole set Saenz's first possible parole date for 2046, meaning he will serve 32 years in prison and be 56 years old before he gets a chance to appeal to the board.
