SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Jan. 3, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill on Wednesday announced six first-degree felony charges against Cesar Matias Sevilla-Aleman for the alleged murders of three people in March 2022 over a $2,400 drug debt.
The three victims in this case, Rocio Bustamante, Carlos “Carlitos” Sepulveda, and Zamir “Cumbias” Sanchez, were last seen in West Valley City on March 28 of that year when a relative of Bustamante saw her get into the car with the other two victims.
A few months later, the same family member got a phone call telling them to stop looking for Bustamante because someone killed her and buried her in the mountains.
Sevilla-Aleman was later arrested for a shooting in Spanish Fork and detectives took his cell phone. West Valley City Police discovered Sepulveda’s phone was in the same location as Sevilla-Aleman’s at 3:21 a.m. on March 28, 2022. Sevilla-Aleman’s phone location was in the Vernon/Rush Valley area in Tooele County.
Later on March 28, 2022, a witness woke up to see Sevilla-Aleman and three other people in her house covered in dirt and mud, talking about shooting and killing the three victims, investigators say. That witness heard the group with Sevilla-Aleman say that they dug the hole for the men, and the woman was not supposed to be there, but she was shot and killed as well.
Detectives also found a social media conversation between Sepulveda and Sanchez in which Sepulveda said that he needed to pay a debt of $2400 or “they” would take him away.
In April of 2023, human remains were detected by dogs from Rocky Mountain Cadaver Dog Search and Rescue Group, which was training in the area of the Mercur Trailhead, in Tooele County.
Sevilla-Aleman now faces charges of:
- Three counts of aggravated murder, a first-degree felony
- Three counts of aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony
“We thank our partners in law enforcement for working with our prosecutors to help solve this case and file these charges,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill in the prepared statement, adding that all persons accused of wrongdoing are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
