Woman describes killings in Roy double murder case

OGDEN — A Roy man charged in a double homicide that could carry the death penalty if he is convicted faced his ex-girlfriend in court Wednesday as she took the stand against him.

Jeremy Lee Valdes, 33, watched as a red-faced, weeping Miranda Mandy Statler, 26, described what she observed in a Weber County mobile home where Pamela Jeffries, 56, and her son, Matthew Roddy, 31, were slain on Nov. 25, 2009.

Valdes also heard a police recording in which he confessed to the crimes.

After listening to evidence in a daylong preliminary hearing, 2nd District Judge Mark DeCaria bound Valdes over for trial. His next court date is April 5.

Statler, who testified at length, painted a bleak picture of herself and Valdes as two heroin addicts wandering aimlessly, sleeping at various friends' homes, with Statler carrying her belongings in two grocery bags.

They stayed for a time with Roddy and Jeffries, but left one night when they felt unwelcome. Returning the next morning, Valdes and Statler found an angry Roddy yelling at them about stealing prescription medication from his mother.

Statler said the fight grew physical. She sat on a couch and the two men fought in a bedroom. At one point, she heard Roddy cry out, "Stop!"

Meanwhile, Jeffries had emerged from her bedroom, also enraged about missing medication, lunged at Statler and pulled her hair with both hands. Both women began "wrestling" on the floor, Statler testified.

Statler said she saw her ex-boyfriend come out of Roddy's bedroom with bloodied pants and a knife in his hand.

"Pam said, 'What have you done?' " Statler recalled.

Jeffries was on her hands and knees on the floor when Valdes ran over and kicked the woman so hard in the face that "she whipped back onto her back" and was knocked unconscious, Statler said.

Statler and Jeffries then ransacked the place for drugs and money. They took Roddy's car keys, debit card, wallet and cell phone, she said. The two left the mobile home — with Valdes kicking the woman's head again — but returned several times, once "to see if Pam was breathing."

At one point, Valdes duct-taped a plastic bag over Jeffries' head. Statler, who said she was in another room, said she could hear the tape being ripped off the roll and later saw the unconscious Jeffries, her face covered with the plastic and her breathing labored.