Juan Antonio Arreola-Murillo Sentenced to 60 years for 3 Aggravated Murders

Today, Judge Kara Pettit, a Third District Court judge sentenced Juan Antonio Arreola-Murillo to a prison term of 60 years to life for the February 9, 2006 aggravated murders of Sonia Mejia and her unborn male child, and the February 9, 2008 aggravated murder of Damiana Castillo. The sentences are to run consecutively.

 

On June 12, 2023, Mr. Arreola-Murillo pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder, each a first-degree felony.

 

Following the 2008 homicide, and before a positive identification was made, Mr. Arreola-Murillo was deported to Mexico. In 2016, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) reported a positive match on the latent fingerprints that were obtained from the scene of Ms. Mejia’s and Ms. Castillo’s murders. On April 5, 2017, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office reviewed and filed formal criminal charges against Mr. Arreola-Murillo. At the time, Mr. Arreola-Murillo was serving a prison sentence in Mexico for aggravated robbery. Following his prison sentence and the extradition process, Mr. Arreola-Murillo was returned to the State of Utah from Mexico in January 2022 to stand trial.

 

The son of Ms. Castillo told the court that his family has waited years for this date and for justice. The grandson of Ms. Castillo said that a piece of his heart was taken the day his grandmother was murdered. The sister of Ms. Mejia explained that the murder of her sister has been very painful and the family will never recover. Another sister of Ms. Mejia advocated for the maximum punishment and for justice for her sister and nephew. All of the family members for the three victims expressed their appreciation for the efforts of all those involved in bringing this man to justice.

 

“Mr. Arreola-Murillo will hopefully spend the rest of his life in prison for the heinous and depraved murders of these three innocent victims. Violent crime in our community will never be tolerated and my office will always prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. “Our office continues to mourn the losses of Damiana Castillo, Sonia Mejia and her unborn child. We would like to acknowledge the hard work of prosecutor Vincent Meister and the staff of the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office, along with Unified Police Department and West Valley City Police Department.”