by April Scheinoha
Reporter
A Thief River Falls man accused of murder waived his right to a jury trial Tuesday, Jan. 28 in Pennington County District Court.
Jorge Luis Benitez-Estremera, 34, is accused of intentionally killing Steven Opdahl outside of DigiKey on May 9, 2023. Benitez-Estremera faces felony charges of first degree murder – premeditated and second degree murder – intent.
During Tuesday’s court hearing, Benitez-Estremera indicated his desire to have a trial before Judge Tamara Yon instead of a jury. Through an interpreter, he also said he desired to have a stipulated evidence trial. In that instance, no witnesses would testify. Instead, Yon would review evidence agreed upon by both sides to determine Benitez-Estremera’s guilt or innocence.
Benitez-Estremera’s attorneys, Steve Bergeson and Eric Gudmundson from the state and local Public Defender’s Offices, plan to rely on a defense of mental illness or deficiency.
Two mental health/cognitive impairment evaluations have been completed on Benitez-Estremera. One was privately obtained by the defense while the other was privately obtained by the state, which is represented by Assistant Minnesota Attorney General John Gross and Interim Pennington County Attorney Nathan Haase.
The trial will be bifurcated into two phases due to the results of the two psychological reports. As a result, if Yon finds Benitez-Estremera guilty of any of the charges, she will then rule on whether he knew the difference between right and wrong.
Benitez-Estremera is next expected to appear in court Wednesday, Feb. 26.
According to the criminal complaint, Opdahl suffered severe trauma to the left portion of his head. Next to his body was a parking pole with a sign. Blood was also visible in various areas near his body, and bloody clothing was found in a nearby garbage can. Opdahl was assaulted while on a smoke break outside of his place of employment. Besides allegedly assaulting Opdahl with the parking pole sign, Benitez-Estremera punched him 17 times with most of the punches hitting him on the head. The two men didn’t know each other.
The three-minute attack was captured on surveillance video. The complaint indicated that Opdahl displayed no aggression to Benitez-Estremera. He walked around near Benitez-Estremera’s car and smoked his cigarette, ultimately standing in front of and facing Benitez-Estremera’s car. There were no witnesses. Benitez-Estremera was there to pick up his girlfriend who worked at DigiKey. He was located hours later at a Thief River Falls apartment complex.
According to the complaint, Benitez-Estremera allegedly told his girlfriend that he felt a negative force from Opdahl. In an interview with law enforcement, he said Opdahl was contaminated and needed to be taken out of the system.
Benitez-Estremera’s attorneys had sought to suppress statements that he had made in custody as part of the murder investigation. In August, Judge Tamara Yon found that Benitez-Estremera validly waived his Miranda rights.
According to documents filed in court, Benitez-Estremera is a native of Puerto Rico. He lived in Florida and Puerto Rico before moving to Thief River Falls about five years ago. He worked at Arctic Cat until December 2022.