Murder of Jesse Valencia

Jesse James Wade Valencia was born on February 22, 1981, in Boyle County, Kentucky, one of three children with two sisters. After high school he worked as a model, and at the time of his death he was a 23-year-old junior at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, studying pre-law and journalism and worked at the Campus Inn Motel. Valencia was openly gay at his college, supported by the people close to him, and dated and had casual relationships during his time there.

Two months before the murder, Columbia police officer Steven Rios was called to break up a party Valencia was attending; when Valencia objected to the raid, Rios arrested him. After asking Valencia numerous personal questions on the drive to the station, Rios visited him the next day, and the two began having sex. Rios repeatedly arrived unannounced at Valencia's living space for sexual encounters before leaving each time. Valencia told his mother he felt "stalked," though he knew little about Rios, possibly not even his name. Because the arrest charges had not been dropped, Valencia told a friend he was ready to report Rios to his department.

On the night of June 4, 2004, Valencia finished his shift at the motel and went to a campus party, where he drank before setting out on foot, calling one of his partners along the way. Students found his body the following morning, June 5, between two campus buildings; he is believed to have been killed shortly before dawn. His throat had been cut, and marks showed he had been choked beforehand. He had no defensive wounds. Rios was among the first officers to identify Valencia's body.

A witness who knew Valencia had an arrangement with a police officer, though not his name, reported it to investigators and later identified Rios from department photographs. Rios denied killing Valencia but admitted a sexual relationship once the witness was identified. A DNA sample matched Rios's DNA to material under Valencia's fingernails, but he was released because the match alone did not tie him to the killing. Rios then called his police captain, implied guilt, said he had bought a shotgun, and expressed suicidal intent; he was placed under an emergency psychiatric hold, escaped, again threatened suicide by trying to jump from a parking garage, and was institutionalized again. A follow-up coroner's exam found bruising on Valencia's chest and back consistent with a police chokehold; investigators concluded Rios, who had failed defensive-tactics training, applied the hold improperly, and that arm hairs on Valencia's chest had been pulled out in self-defense. Rios was arrested and charged with murder.

Prosecutors argued Valencia had demanded the relationship end after learning Rios had a wife and newborn child, that Rios reacted with rage, chased him outside, and killed him. Rios's defense argued Valencia's numerous partners left reasonable doubt about who was responsible; later reporting also said Rios had propositioned other people he had arrested for sexual favors. A jury convicted Rios of first-degree murder in September 2004, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole plus a consecutive ten-year term for armed criminal action. An appeals court later overturned the conviction after finding hearsay evidence had been improperly admitted at trial. At a retrial, Rios was convicted of second-degree murder and armed criminal action and received another life sentence plus an additional twenty-three years. As of 2022, he remained in prison.