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BOUNTIFUL — A man involved in the murder of a Woods Cross motel clerk 20 years ago now faces criminal charges for allegedly forcing two young women who feared he might kill them into prostitution.
One of the women recalled Todd Jeremy Rettenberger, 37, talking about an incident with a hotel clerk who she believed he had killed. She understood that to mean "that if she crossed him, she would be killed like the hotel clerk," according to charging documents filed Friday in 2nd District Court.
State prosecutors allege Rettenberger made the women work as prostitutes at the Plaza, Royal Garden, Little America and Ramada hotels in Salt Lake City and the Crossland Hotel in Springfield, Oregon, in January and February. He solicited clients by posting ads with pictures of them on a website called backpage.com, the charges state.
One of the women met Rettenberger while both of them were working at Arctic Circle restaurant in Bountiful and he "recruited her into his service," according to the charges.
The other woman told police she started working for him because she was a heroin addict and he gave her drugs. She said Rettenberger taught her the "rules of the game" and that she should never reveal anything if she were caught and should "take the charge."
Investigators say Rettenberger waited outside the hotels and had the women text him after the johns paid them. One of the women told them she "turned a trick" in a Bountiful car wash while Rettenberger drove.
Both victims say Rettenberger threatened to harm them and their families and forced them into violent sex acts if they stopped working. He kept almost all of the money from the prostitution operation, according to the charges.
Members of the Utah Attorney General's Office Secure Strike Force found several of the online advertisements and obtained a search warrant for Rettenberger's cellphone.
The phone contained images of both women in sexual poses, a photo of a book titled "Pimping for Dummies," and a photo of an open jail cell with the caption, "If nobody talks, everybody walks."
The attorney general's office charged Rettenberger with two counts of human trafficking for forced sexual exploitation, a second-degree felony; two counts of aggravated exploitation of prostitution, a second-degree felony; pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony; obstruction of justice, a third-degree felony; and witness tampering, a third-degree felony.
He is being held at the Utah State Prison on a parole violation.
Rettenberger was part of a lengthy, complex saga involving the murder of Matthew John Whicker, 30, during a Motel 6 robbery in 1996, and once confessed to the deadly shooting. He was one of two 18-year-olds and a 17-year-old arrested for the killing.
In 1999, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that Rettenberger's statements could not be used because police lied and manipulated him to get the confession. He later testified that he was the lookout and the getaway driver during the crime.
Three years later, he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter as part of a plea deal just before his trial was about to start after spending five years in the Davis County Jail. He received a suspended sentence and was freed.
In 2011, Rettenberger pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated sexual exploitation of a prostitute and attempted money laundering and a judge ordered him to serve five years in prison. He was paroled in November.
The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole listed Rettenberger as a fugitive on Feb. 9 and issued a warrant for his arrest. Authorities in Idaho arrested him Feb. 24. Utah revoked his parole and sent him back to prison March 4.
