What's Your Opinion?

Ex-officer convicted Jury deliberates for nine hours in Rios trial.
By MIKE WELLS of the Tribune’s staff
Published Sunday, May 22, 2005
Once a bearer of the golden badge of the Columbia Police Department, former Officer Steven Rios is now a convicted killer.
Ed Pfueller photo
Convicted murderer Steven Rios stand in shackles yesterday as the jury recommends a sentence of 10 years for armed criminal action after declaring him guilty of first degree murder, which carries a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. After a weeklong trial and nine hours of deliberation, Clay County jurors found Rios guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the June 5 death of Jesse Valencia.
In reaction to the verdict’s announcement yesterday at 10:20 a.m., emotion washed over the courtroom audience. The victim’s family and friends sobbed in relief, and the defendant’s family members lowered their heads and embraced.
Rios will spend life in prison without probation or parole on the murder charge. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.
Boone County Circuit Judge Ellen Roper scheduled sentencing on the armed criminal action charge for July 5. The jury recommended 10 years in prison, but Roper can add to that term.
Public Defender Valerie Leftwich said she expected lengthy deliberations because of the number of exhibits and testimony. The verdict disappointed her. "I certainly think there’s reasonable doubt," she said.
Valencia was last seen alive walking home from a friend’s party at about 3:40 a.m. June 5. His body was found later that day in a neighbor’s yard with arms and legs akimbo and a 4-inch gash across his throat.
The investigation twisted upon itself within 24 hours after Valencia’s friends told detectives he was having an affair with a married police officer.
Valencia, a gay 23-year-old history major at the University of Missouri-Columbia, met Rios when the officer arrested him April 18, 2004, at a loud party in the East Campus neighborhood. The two quickly began a sexual affair that Special Prosecutor Morley Swingle said led to the killing. Rios was arrested July 1 and charged with killing Valencia.
The trial began Monday. During deliberations, which started Friday afternoon, the jury first asked for a large pad of paper and a pen, then a map of Columbia and driving times between the Columbia Police Department and the victim’s apartment on Wilson Avenue and from the apartment to Rios’ home on Affirmed Drive.
Leftwich had argued Rios could not have had time to leave the department, kill Valencia and arrive at his home at the time his wife testified he walked in.
When jurors asked to review the probability statistics for DNA evidence discovered under the victim’s fingernails and hairs found on his shaved chest, Swingle said, he suspected they believed Rios had enough time kill Valencia.
Crime lab results showed a probability of 757.5 trillion to 1 that the three limb hairs tested belonged to anyone but Rios.
Swingle said he was not surprised when Rios testified Friday in his own defense.
"I expected it," he said. "I could tell he was an arrogant, conceited sociopath. And so I had my cross examination written a month ago."
Some of the most explosive aspects of the prosecution’s case never made it to the courtroom. Testimony that would have been considered hearsay wasn’t admitted, including that several of the state’s witnesses overheard Valencia refer to Rios as "Anderson" because that’s what Rios told him his real name was, Swingle said.
Investigators suspected Rios not only told Valencia that Anderson was his name, but that he wore a false nametag, Swingle said. Columbia police Officer Ted Anderson’s uniform nametag disappeared earlier this year and was never found.
Swingle failed to get an opening to call four special witnesses who were waiting in a room elsewhere in the courthouse because neither Rios nor any of the defense witnesses testified to the issue of his moral character or any past incidents of becoming involved with people he’s arrested.
Three women were prepared to testify that Rios propositioned them for sex after he had arrested them on various charges, Swingle said. The women described Rios’ overtures as "creepy," Swingle said.
In addition, a Boone County Sheriff’s Department deputy was ready to testify why Rios lost his job as a county corrections officer in 1999 after only one month of employment. Swingle said Rios forged a friend’s name on a storage locker rental application without telling the friend, then put his own personal property in a locker next to it. After Rios’ arrest last year, former Sheriff Ted Boehm declined to say why Rios left the jail job, citing confidential personnel issues.
In November 2001, Rios joined the Columbia police. His duties included patrolling the East Campus neighborhood where Valencia lived.