Cuevas trial marks end to 2005 murder case
By KEN BLACK, TIMES-REPUBLICANWhen Brenda Cuevas was discovered dead in a house fire in Eldora in 2005, authorities thought the circumstances were immediately suspicious.
Almost immediately, Jess Cuevas, Brenda's estranged husband, became a subject of interest. Despite that, it still took approximately 2.5 years to bring the case to trial.
That trial is the Times-Republican's top crime story of 2008.
The trial began with investigators detailing what they found and why they deemed the fire and the death suspicious. Although there was no physical evidence linking Cuevas to the scene the night of the fire in October 2005, prosecutors laid out a very compelling line of circumstantial evidence.
First, there was Cuevas unusual actions with the couple's children, insisting on sleeping with them in their room that night.
Second, there was the fact he was cleaning out the interior of his pickup truck, something his daughter said he did very rarely. He attributed the cleaning to a dog which had urinated in the truck, even though neither of his daughters reported they could smell anything wrong.
Also, there was his denial in front his daughters that he killed his wife, even though his children had not asked him anything about his involvement in the situation.
There was the fact his cell phone had not pinged off a tower for several hours during the night, and when it did, it was in a portion of the town of Norwalk that would normally receive a signal from where he lived.
He bought filled up his gas tank the previous night after picking up his daughters in Eldora, and filled it up again the next morning.
The fire was said to be intentionally set with gasoline.
Cuevas had a pair of dirty shoes at the home which later disappeared before authorities could come and confiscate them.
Still, despite all this, perhaps the most compelling piece of testimony came from Cuevas' 15-year-old daughter.
"But your friends say your dad killed your mom, right?" the defense attorney asked at one point during the trial.
"Yeah, it's pretty obvious," the girl responded.
She also was not shy about expressing her feelings toward her dad in another exchange.
When asked if one of her grandmothers was mad at her father, she responded, "Yeah."
"And your friends are mad at your dad?" the defense attorney asked.
"Everybody's mad at my dad," came the response.
"So everyone's mad at your dad?"
"Even me," she said.
Authorities believe Cuevas was trying to set himself up with an alibi after sleeping in the same room with his daughters. Once they fell asleep, authorities believe Cuevas left his daughters at the home in rural Norwalk, drove back to Eldora and committed the crime.
Once the fire was set, he then drove back home and was there when his daughters awoke the next morning.
At the time, Cuevas and Brenda were going through a custody dispute and Cuevas indicated during interviews with police the couple was having a hard time adjusting to all the personal issues associated with the relationship.
After being found guilty at the end of the trial in June, Cuevas was sentenced to life in prison in August.
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Contact Ken Black at 641-753-6611 or kblack@timesrepublican.com
