- Andy Leon Vigil, 54, had a parole hearing Tuesday.
- Vigil was convicted in 1990 of killing his mother and sexually abusing a 4-year-old child.
- He claims his actions were impulsive and expressed remorse during the hearing.
SALT LAKE CITY — A man originally facing a possible death sentence, who was told in 1997 he would serve the rest of his life in prison, went before a member of the parole board on Tuesday.
Andy Leon Vigil, 54, was convicted in 1990 of criminal homicide and sex abuse of a child. He was also originally charged with capital murder and also for sexually assaulting his mother, Juanita Madrigal, 40, and raping the 4-year-old girl. The aggravated sexual assault charge was dropped and the rape charge reduced as part of a plea deal in which prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for his guilty pleas.
In 1997, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole ordered Vigil to serve the rest of his natural life in prison. But just three years later, a redetermination hearing was requested, and on Tuesday, a hearing was held for Vigil.
On Sept. 2, 1990, Vigil sexually assaulted a 4-year-old girl his mother was babysitting in Salt Lake City and then killed his mother by hitting her with a baseball bat as she lay in bed.
On Tuesday, board member Melissa Stirba asked Vigil what was going on with his life at that time.
"I was just kind of bumming around, hanging out with family members doing drugs and drinking," he said. "I became unmanageable, out of control."
According to Vigil, he would hang out with his uncles and other relatives who were constantly drinking and doing drugs.
"They were just handing me cigarettes and beer, and that's just how we lived," he said. "It was just living day to day. Nobody slapped me around and told me to get a job and straighten out. ... It was just not even something we talked about. We just got up and started over again, looking for drugs."
The crime happened on Labor Day at the end of an extended weekend.
"We started drinking like on Thursday … man, we were shooting cocaine, snorting cocaine," Vigil recalled. "After four days … I don't know if I was hallucinating or what. But I wasn't in my normal state."
Vigil, who said he was so "wired out" that he couldn't sleep, was told to go to his own home and entered his house through the window "like I always do."
Once inside, he found a 4-year-old girl in his mother's bed. Vigil says he tried to move the girl to his sister's room and ended up sexually assaulting her.
"When she screamed, I guess I just panicked. I ran into my mom's room. I don't know if I just didn't want to get caught, or whatever," he said before admitting he hit his mother with a baseball bat. "I believe my mom was still asleep when I hit her with the bat the first time.
"I didn't think that my mom would die. I didn't have any clue that that would happen," he continued.
Vigil claims he then pulled his mother's pants down, hoping to make it look like another man had committed the crime. When police arrived, he tried to blame another man that his mother knew.
But he says detectives figured out quickly what had really happened.
"I made the classic mistake that all criminals make: I thought I was smarter than the police," he said. "After I got done lying to them, they said, 'We know it was you, your life is over and you're going to jail.'"
In trying to explain his actions on Tuesday, Vigil could only say that he came to his senses after attacking his mother.
"It was like waking up from a dream. It's just hard to say, like a fog lifted or something."
Stirba noted during the hearing that Vigil's first several years in prison were full of disciplinary violations. He says it was because he was locked up in "super max" with lifetime criminals.
"They were my new role models," he said. "I was angry, I was impressionable … so I acted the way they did."
Vigil eventually turned the corner and earned enough privileges to get a job while incarcerated, complete his GED and be moved out of the maximum security unit.
Stirba also noted during the hearing that the board had received letters from Vigil's family requesting that he not ever be released from prison. Although they did not attend Tuesday's hearing, Stirba asked Vigil what he would say to his sister if she were present.
"If I saw my sister I'd probably throw myself at her feet and beg for forgiveness," he said. "They don't want to hear anything from me, I already know that."
Vigil says his crimes were impulsive and not planned.
"I wish I had been in my right mind. I wish things had been different. ... Nobody wants to hear 'sorry,' but I am sorry."
The full five-member board will now vote whether to grant parole.
