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Murder trial hearing postponed
Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 24, 2005 by Pat Reavy Deseret Morning News
A hearing in Millard County for a suspected serial killer was continued Monday until August.
Chief Deputy County Attorney Brent Berkley said the defense needed more time to go through the 4,300 pages of documents the prosecution had submitted in its case against Robert Ben Rhoades.
Rhoades, 59, is charged with murder and kidnapping in the 1990 death of 24-year-old Patricia Candice Walsh. He is accused of torturing Walsh before killing her and dumping her body in a remote area south of Fillmore.
Berkley characterized the documents as police reports, scientific reports on evidence and witness statements. The prosecution hopes all the documents will provide them with a solid case.
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"We feel pretty comfortable about it," he said.
In late April ex parte motions were filed in 4th District Court for funds to retain a ballistics expert and investigative resources in regard to the Rhoades case. All motions were sealed.
Walsh and her new husband, Scott Zyskowski, 25, both originally from Seattle, were allegedly picked up by Rhoades while hitchhiking in the South in 1990.
Rhoades was a truck driver who investigators believe would pick up young women either hitchhiking or at truck stops while traveling cross country and systematically torture and sexually assault them in the cab of his truck before killing them.
Zyskowski's body was found in January 1990 near I-10 near El Paso, Texas, but wasn't identified until 1992.
Authorities in Texas recently filed a murder indictment against Rhoades in their case, according to Berkley.
Rhoades was already serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole in Pontiac, Ill., for the murder of a 14-year- old runaway girl from Texas, whose body was found near Greenville, Ill., before he was extradited earlier this year to Utah.
Prosecutors in Utah are expected to seek the death penalty if Rhoades is convicted.
Whether or not Rhoades stands trial in Texas could be determined by the outcome of the case in Millard County.
The status conference hearing was scheduled to resume Aug. 1.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com
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