7 days ago
Teen killer gives shocking prison interview after helping Republican lawmaker's daughter murder her father
A Las Vegas killer who helped his then-girlfriend murder her father insisted he is 'not a monster' in a jailhouse interview as he said he hopes to someday be paroled.
Aaron Guerrero, 20, was convicted alongside his former girlfriend Sierra Halseth after they brutally stabbed, dismembered and burned her father Daniel Halseth in April 2021.
Guerrero, who was 18 at the time of the slaying, said he and Sierra, then-16, decided to kill Halseth because he mistreated his daughter, which the victim's family insist is completely false.
In his jailhouse interview, Guerrero said he was suffering from mental health problems at the time and wasn't taking his medication.
'I would pretend like I would take it, and I feel like that has some form or impact in what happened,' he said in an interview with 8NewsNow.
Guerrero added that he was taking LSD often at the time of the murder, and blamed the psychedelic drug for exacerbating his mental health problems, leading to the murder.
'I don't think I would have been capable of something like that had I been sober, because it's a psychological drug as most people know, and when you have a mental illness it only makes it worse,' he said.
Both Guerrero and Sierra were sentenced in 2022 to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 22 years, and he said that if he is ever freed, he hopes to show the Halseth family he is a better person.
Sierra Halseth, then-16, left, and Aaron Guerrero, then-18, right, are pictured in their mugshots after being arrested for murdering her father Daniel Halseth in 2021
When asked how he could ever make up the brutal murder to the Halseth family, Guerrero responded: 'By proving to them that I'm not a monster.
'(And by showing) that I still have potential to be a functioning member of society and can benefit society.'
When Sierra and Guerrero were caught for Halseth's murder three days after his burnt body was found in his Las Vegas home, shocking footage the couple filmed while on the run captured international headlines.
They were seen cuddled up in bed together, with Guerrero kissing his girlfriend on the head and saying: 'Day three after murdering somebody.'
'Don't say that on camera!' she responded.
Halseth was the ex-husband of former Republican state legislator Elizabeth Halseth, Sierra's mother.
The couple had a public divorce and custody battle, and prosecutors said that he had a fraught relationship with Sierra and the murder came after he tried to forbid her from seeing Guerrero.
Explaining the casualness of their reaction to the murder in the infamous footage filmed days later, Guerrero now says that he is not proud of the footage.
'We were both trying to cope with what happened and we, I can't say for Sierra, but personally I feel guilt every day,' he said.
The brutality in Halseth's murder stunned the nation, with detectives finding that the father was stabbed 70 times before his body was cut up by construction tools.
His remains were found stuffed in a sleeping bag in the garage of his home, which had been set on fire.
Asked how the murder unfolded, Guerrero did not go into specifics, but said: 'She got the weapon first and I always carry a weapon, so you know that's what led to what happened after that.'
Sierra is locked up in Florence McClure Women's Correctional Center in North Las Vegas, while Guerrero is spending his sentence at High Desert State Prison, just a 40 minute drive away.
But Guerrero said he has no plans on ever speaking to his former girlfriend again, and said he is filled with regret over how he got swept up in their teen relationship.
'I think I acted more out of impulse than what you could call love,' he said.
