SALT LAKE CITY — Four years after the dismembered body of a Taylorsville teenager was found inside a utility trailer, the boy's friend, Rowdy Lee Aguilar, pleaded guilty to the murder on Friday.
Rowdy Lee Aguilar entered a plea of guilty with a mental condition in the death of 15-year-old Ivan Vetecnik.
In May 2021, Aguilar's father was looking for his son when he found the body, which had been stabbed 26 times and partially dismembered, inside multiple garbage bags in the trailer.
At the time of the discovery, Aguliar's father said the trailer had "smelled strongly of cleaning agents."
According to the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office, security video showed both Aguilar and Vetecnik entering Aguilar's home on the morning of May 26, 2021. Hours later, Aguilar, who was 17 at the time, was seen entering the house solo while wearing a shirt "heavily stained with apparent blood."
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Twenty minutes after being seen by himself, Aguilar was spotted on the security cameras of a local business carrying items that appeared to be garbage bags. DNA found on a bloody glove and knife discovered in the trailer was consistent with Vetecnik and Aguilar's profiles.
When he was arrested in June 2021, Aguilar first denied knowing Vetecnik and claimed he had been at his girlfriend's house. However, during a later interview with detectives, he admitted to stabbing his friend, saying, "I did it," but sharing no motive.
The plea of guilty with a mental condition carries a mandatory sentence of a minimum of 25 years to life in prison. Because Aguilar was a minor at the time of the murder, he will be held in a youth secure care facility until he is 25, and then be transferred to the Utah State Correctional Facility.
"We hope that this conviction helps the victim's family feel they have received a measure of justice and accountability for the death of their loved one. We hope they may now begin to heal from the trauma of their loss," said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.
Aguilar is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 5.
