SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A man the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office gave repeated plea deals to in domestic violence cases pleaded guilty to murder.
Fred Jason Edwards, 48, a convicted felon with a violent criminal record dating back decades, tried to gouge a guards eyes out while he was an inmate at the Salt Lake County Metro jail; attacked his girlfriend, causing her to jump from a moving car; and texted his mother that if she called his probation officer he would chop her in half — ending the text message with a disparaging and offensive term for a sexually promiscuous woman.
All of this precipitated the murder of Esperanza Chavez, who started dating Edwards in 2023.
MORE | Fred Jason Edwards
On Jan. 20, 2024, she broke off the relationship and was moving to another state when officers with the Unified Police Department said Edwards drove by her parents’ home…