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West Jordan • A convicted murderer on Thursday apologized to the family of the Taylorsville woman he strangled to death in 2014, saying that the drug spice had "tipped him off the rails" and that he was sorry for the pain he had caused.
At the time of the murder, Bryan Steve Presentacion-Quintanilla said he was using two jars a day of spice, an herb that experts say has effects on the body similar to marijuana.
"I took a life out of this world that I will never be able to give back," Presentacion-Quintanilla said just before he was sentenced to prison for the murder of Margaret Steffey. "For that I am deeply sorry."
Third District Court Judge Bruce Lubeck ordered the 19-year-old man to serve 25 years to life for the murder and five years to life for robbing the woman. The judge ordered the two convictions to run consecutively.
Presentacion-Quintanilla had pleaded guilty to first-degree felonies aggravated murder and aggravated robbery in April — about one year after the 59-year-old Steffey was found dead by police in her home near 3900 W. Blue Meadow Drive.
Police found Steffey's dead body wrapped in plastic and hidden in a crawl space under her home.
"It's beyond comprehension how this sort of thing can happen," Lubeck said before handing down the sentence.
The judge rejected Presentacion-Quintanilla's explanation that drugs had caused the incident and said prosecutors had given him "a better deal than you deserve."
Lubeck also compared Presentacion-Quintanilla's actions to those of jungle predators that prey on the old and the lame.
"It makes me shudder to think what she must have gone through with you in there," he said. "It's unpronounceably sad what you did to her."
A medical examiner said Steffey, who had been beaten and strangled, died from the combined effects of "blunt force trauma, suffocation and strangulation," court papers say.
When he was arrested, Presentacion-Quintanilla had Steffey's credit cards in his pocket, having withdrawn more than $1,500 from the woman's bank accounts. He also had a newly purchased airline ticket to El Salvador, where police said he has family.
Steffey's family did not speak at the hearing, but in letters to Lubeck, her elderly aunt and two female cousins described her as a kind, generous woman who would have given Presentacion-Quintanilla the money he ultimately stole from her.
"He didn't need to kill her for it," a cousin, Jade Nelson, wrote.
All three women characterized Steffey's death as "senseless" and one said Presentacion-Quintanilla should remain in prison for the rest of his life, with a picture of Steffey, whom the family called "Maggi," hanging on his wall as reminder of his "horrific deed."
"You were, Bryan Quintanilla, were greedy, selfish, cruel and brutal," Steffey's 96-year-old aunt, Margaret Cady of Salem, Ore., wrote. "You didn't just steal money from Maggi; you stole from this world a good, kind and gentle woman. You stole Maggi from her family and friends."
Cady, whose sister was Steffey's mother, said she has been so traumatized by her niece's death that she continues to have nightmares about the murder, which occurred less than two months after Steffey had traveled to Oregon for a visit.
"Did she suffer? How long did it take for her to die?" Cady's letter asks. "I can't even write about these dreams. They are simply too gruesome."