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OREM, Utah (AP) -- Utah County prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing two purported Provo drug dealers in an Orem orchard last June.
Seth Rollins Broomhead, 20, of Riverton, has been charged in 4th District Court with two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of Maritza Aguilar, 22, and Pablo Montoya, 20.
Broomhead has been in jail since he was arrested July 12 in a May robbery of a 7-Eleven store in Sandy, Juan Becerra, an FBI agent who works with the Salt Lake Metro Gang Unit, told a news conference Tuesday.
Broomhead allegedly was a member of the Newborn Mafiosos, a new gang in the Salt Lake Valley that engages in armed robberies of convenience stores, Becerra said
Prosecutors allege Broomhead met with Aguilar and Montoya behind an Orem greenhouse on June 13 and shot them in the head as he sat behind them in the back seat of Aguilar's car.
The car's console had been rifled and investigators found 18 baggies of cocaine hidden in a secret compartment in the car. The drugs had a street value of more than $20,000.
Becerra contacted Orem investigators in late September after Broomhead's parents, Ronald and LaRae, showed him several cartons of their son's belongings. The cartons included shoes that investigators believed might match the footprints left in a field near Aguilar's car.
Investigators and Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson declined to discuss other evidence, including whether Broomhead's shoes matched the footprints.
The robbery case includes federal allegations of illegal interstate activity and could expand to include five or six robberies, said Leshia Lee-Dixon, an assistant U.S. attorney.
If convicted, Broomhead would face a seven-year minimum mandatory sentence and $500,000 in fines.
Bryson said he will seek the death penalty in the Orem slayings.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
