- Utah's Court of Appeals upheld Sergio Briseno Medina's murder conviction for killing Hope Gabaldon in February 2016.
- Medina argued ineffective counsel and that prosecutors should have been required to do more to get a key witness to the trial.
- Medina was sentenced in 2022 to consecutive prison terms for murder and obstructing justice.
SALT LAKE CITY — A man who was found guilty of killing 21-year-old Hope Gabaldon in West Valley City will continue his prison sentence after Utah's Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction on Thursday.
Sergio Briseno Medina was convicted in March 2022 of murder. Charges said he stabbed Gabaldon, of Herriman, 20 times before leaving her on the side of the road to die. She was found on 4000 West near 3150 South and later died at the hospital.
Medina argued in his appeal that the district court should not have ruled a "key witness" was unavailable at trial — a man his attorney pinned the killing on in his closing arguments. He claimed prosecutors should have been required to try harder to bring him to the trial. He also argued that his attorney at his jury trial was not effective.
Utah appellate judges disagreed with him on each of his arguments, ruling that his conviction should stand.
According to the opinion, Gabaldon and Medina were friends and sold drugs together. Medina claimed he wanted to scare her out of the drug business and had his girlfriend text her from a blocked number.
Shortly afterward, on Feb. 24, 2016, he texted his girlfriend to say he needed to "take someone out," the opinion stated, and the next day he got into an argument with Gabaldon. The opinion states that the last cellphone communication between Medina and Gabaldon occurred at approximately 5:45 p.m. on Feb. 25, 2016. The ruling said their phones were in a similar location, and then Gabaldon's phone was turned off or stopped working.
Shortly after someone picked Medina up, a man called 911 after finding Gabaldon on the ground along the road.
He was later arrested in Colorado. The opinion stated that his story changed three times during his first interview with officers, and again at another interview after he was told they had already talked with someone he had pointed toward as the suspect.
Medina was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for murder, a first-degree felony, and one to 15 years in prison for obstructing justice, a second-degree felony. Third District Judge Randall Skanchy ordered the sentences to run consecutively to each other.
