Gay cop found
guilty of killing lover

After a weeklong trial, jurors deliberated nine hours Saturday before finding former officer Steve Rios guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the June 5 death of gay college student Jesse Valencia. At the verdict's announcement, the victim's family and friends sobbed in relief, and the defendant's family lowered their heads and embraced. Rios initially appeared angry and in disbelief. He didn't show anguish until he saw his family's reaction and then looked down in tears. On the murder conviction Rios earned a sentence of life in prison without probation or parole. Prosecutors were not seeking the death penalty. Boone County, Mo., circuit judge Ellen Roper set a final disposition date of July 5 for sentencing Rios on the armed criminal action charge. The jury recommended 10 years in prison on that charge, but Roper is free to add to that term. Public defender Valerie Leftwich said she wasn't surprised by the length of deliberations because of the sheer number of exhibits and testimony. However, she was dismayed at the verdict. "I certainly think there's reasonable doubt," she said. "But you never know what they jury is going to do. I can't get into the minds of those people." Valencia was last seen alive walking home from a friend's party at about 3:40 a.m. on June 5. His body was found that afternoon in a neighbor's yard with arms and legs akimbo and a jagged four-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, according to testimony. Valencia was a 23-year-old history major at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He met Rios when the officer arrested Valencia on April 18 of last year at a loud party in the East Campus neighborhood of Columbia. Rios became publicly linked to the case in media accounts days after the body was found. He twice threatened to end his life--once with a shotgun and once by leaping off the ledge of the five-story Maryland Avenue parking garage. Detectives interviewed him three times before the suicide threats. He'd confessed to the affair but denied killing Valencia. Without an eyewitness to the slaying or the discovery of a weapon, the investigation dragged. Rios quit his job June 16. Ultimately, the case solidified when Rios's DNA was discovered under Valencia's right fingernails, and the former officer was arrested July 1. He then six spent months under observation at a mental hospital before being transferred in January to the Boone County Jail, where he'd once worked as a corrections officer. Special prosecutor Morley Swingle said several of the jury's written requests while in deliberations indicated to him that jurors were strongly examining the evidence. They first asked for a large pad of paper and pen, then a map of Columbia and a list of driving times between the Columbia Police Department and the victim's apartment on Wilson Avenue and the apartment to Rios's home on Affirmed Drive. When jurors then asked to review the probability statistics for DNA evidence discovered under the victim's fingernails and hairs found on his shaved chest, Swingle suspected jurors believed Rios had enough time kill Valencia after he left the police station and before the time his wife testified she saw him enter their home. Swingle wasn't surprised Rios testified on Friday. "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 name tag, Swingle said, adding that Columbia police Officer Ted Anderson's uniform name tag disappeared earlier this year and was never found. Swingle also never got 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 past incidents of becoming involved with people he's arrested. Three women were prepared to testify that Rios propositioned them for sex after he'd arrested them on various charges. The women described it as "creepy," Swingle said. In addition, a Boone County deputy was ready to testify why Rios lost his job as a county jail corrections officer in 1999 after only one month. 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. The alleged offense constituted forgery and theft, but no charges were filed. (Mike Wells, Advocate/Sirius OutQ News)