Pocatello woman accused of murder appears in court
Kristina May Juarez, 42, was in court Monday on the charge of second-degree murder.
Juarez was arrested Friday in connection to a fatal stabbing on Jefferson Avenue in Pocatello Thursday night.
Police were called to a home on Jefferson Avenue around 10:30 p.m. Thursday night for a report of a disturbance, which resulted in two bodies.
The first body was Ronald Michael Christensen, who had been fatally stabbed.
The second body, John Edward Kautz, was later found in the basement. Kautz’s death has been ruled a suicide.
Juarez was arrested for Christensen’s murder. In court Monday, a public defender was appointed to represent Juarez.
It was an initial appearance so no plea was entered. The original bond for Juarez was set at $250,000. The defense requested that bond be reduced to $75,000 or $100,000. Due to the serious nature of the crime and Juarez’s previous history with failure to appear and parole violations, the judge denied the reduction and kept the bond at $250,000.
Juarez will be back in court for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 8. If convicted of the murder charge, she faces a minimum of 10 years to a maximum of life in prison.
It is believed Juarez and Christensen are brother and sister, but police have not been able to confirm that yet.
Police believe the two deaths are unrelated.
Bannock County Deputy Attorney Zachary Parris said this new case makes several alleged murder cases in just the last few months. He said this is about the sixth pending murder case in the county, which is unusual. Parris said all these cases are keeping the prosecutor’s office busy.
“From a management perspective from our office, because we can only do so many cases, and so, our prosecutors have their regular caseload and then you add these cases on top of that, it just creates an issue for us as far as how we’re going to assign them,” Parris said.
Police and prosecutors are not releasing any further details on the Juarez case at this time since the investigation is still ongoing.
