PIERRE, S.D. –  Attorney General Marty Jackley announced that the South Dakota Supreme Court has affirmed the conviction and sentence of Maricela Nicolasa Diaz for the murder of Jasmine Guevara.   Diaz, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, was sentenced to 80 years for first degree murder and 50 years for felony murder kidnapping.  The sentences are to run concurrently with credit for time served.  Diaz was convicted by a Minnehaha County jury on January 15, 2015.

“Today’s affirmance was the direct result of the tremendous effort by the men and women who investigated and prosecuted this case. Diaz and Salgado have been found guilty of the cold blooded murder of a 16 year-old innocent little girl. I struggle to believe that the family of Jasmine Guevara will ever find closure, but I hope that this affirmance of her conviction and sentence will allow them to begin to heal,” said Jackley.

On November 10, 2009, Diaz and Alexander Salgado murdered Jasmine Guevara. Diaz and her then-boyfriend Salgado were both arrested in November of 2009 for luring Guevara to a remote location in rural Hanson County, where they stabbed her, cut her throat and then set her car on fire while she was alive and in the trunk. Salgado plead guilty to second-degree murder in August of 2010 for his involvement in Guevara’s death. He is currently serving a life sentence at the State Penitentiary.

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