Texas town to try case involving Utah body

Rhoades was caught on April 1, 1990, in Arizona, where police came across Rhoades' semitrailer truck while he was in the process of torturing another woman. He was convicted and sent to prison. Just before he was to be released in Arizona, officials in Illinois filed their case. Rhoades was sent to Illinois where he stood trial and was convicted again.

In 2005, Rhoades was extradited from the Pontiac, Ill., Correctional Center to Utah to stand trial for Walsh's murder. If convicted, prosecutors said they would have sought the death penalty.

But based on the wishes of the families of Walsh and Zyskowski, Utah dropped its case in 2006 and sent Rhoades back to Illinois in anticipation of Texas authorities filing two murder counts and also seeking the death penalty. Under Texas law, prosecutors would be able to put Rhoades on trial for both deaths at once. In Utah, only Walsh's murder could be tried.

The families, not wanting to relive the tragedy twice, asked Utah officials if Texas could handle both cases at the same time.

Rhoades' Texas case, however, is currently delayed. A trial scheduled to begin in September was postponed until 2009 because Rhoades recently got a new defense attorney.

Ozona District Attorney Laurie English said that as far as she knew, Rhoades was still in Illinois and had not yet been extradited to Texas.

English said she has met with the families of the victims, and they are aware of the delays. English declined to talk further about the Rhoades case, saying she could not comment on an open case.

---

E-mail: preavy@desnews.com