A Phoenix man can be put on trial for a 2017 murder, even though he claims an attorney advised him that pleading guilty to concealing the dead body would ensure he could not be charged with homicide.
Leviticus Leroy Najar pleaded guilty in February 2018 to hiding the body of Christian Agusto Alvarez in July 2017. The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled last week that the judge who presided over the case properly rejected Najar’s petition for post-conviction relief.
“We will not disturb that order unless the court abused its discretion,” the Dec. 16 decision states. “Najar has not shown such abuse here.”
Court records show Alvarez’s body was found Aug. 2, 2017 under the wooden floor of a bedroom in the home Najar, 35, shared with his wife, Metika Monet Najar. She pleaded guilty to a Class 6 felony of hindering prosecution while he entered a guilty plea to concealment of a dead body, a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Both were both placed on probation, he for three years. But just a few months later, Najar was indicted on one count of second-degree murder for Alvarez’s death.
No trial date is set on the murder charge as the parties were awaiting the court of appeals’ ruling on Najar’s petition.
The appellate decision noted Najar’s attorney in the concealment case stated he simply assured Najar at the time of plea negotiations that the State “did not have enough evidence to file murder charges.” But the attorney avowed he knew the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office intended to indict Najar for murder “if it could.”
The three appellate judges also rejected Najar’s claim that the murder charge was a violation of the Double Jeopardy Clauses in the U.S. and Arizona Constitutions. Such a claim, if true, has no legal effect on the initial prosecution, as “it would only bar the later prosecution,” the ruling states.
The same reasoning was noted for why Najar’s post-conviction claim of “vindictive prosecution” was properly rejected by the trial court in the body concealment case.
“But, again, this claim could be raised in the homicide prosecution, but not this case,” the decision states.
Najar is slated to return to court Feb. 18, 2021 for a status conference in the murder case. He remains in the Maricopa County jail in lieu of $500,00 bail.
Court records show the discovery of Alvarez’s body came about when the homeowner, who was Metika Najar’s father, was renovating the home after evicting the couple.
Investigations found a six-foot long metal box under the floor. A mattress inside the box covered several trash bags that contained human remains and bodily fluids. A human skull was wrapped in duct tape, according to the Phoenix Police Department.
Matika Najar told investigators Alvarez had stayed with the couple at times, but her husband hit Alvarez with a bat “to get the bad spirits out.” They then wrapped the body in a tarp and hid it in a shed in the backyard. It’s unclear when the body was moved into the house and put under the floor.
Among evidence prosecutors plan to use in Najar’s murder trial is a baseball bat with his DNA on it found under the floor, as well as blood splatter in the room.