He may be in the country illegally and he may have admitted to stabbing his friend in the neck, but Jesus Manuel Holguin-Albo wants a jury truly representative of Utah County if he's going to be tried for murder.

Attorneys on both sides are preparing to argue a defense motion that the county's jury pool is not diverse enough. If the issue sounds familiar, that's because it is. About a year ago, attorney Michael Esplin filed a similar motion, contending that the state wasn't getting a true cross-section of the population in their jury pools.

"Our client is concerned about it. That's why we brought it up," said Holguin-Albo's attorney Scott Williams. "At some point the hope is the jury system will be changed to find a way to get more Latinos into the jury pool."

Esplin's motion failed for a variety of reasons, including cases that weren't "ripe" enough. In a 42-page ruling, Judge Lynn Davis outlined other problems, including the possibility that 70 percent of the Hispanic population could be illegal.

Utah code provides that a jury "be selected at random from a fair cross section of the population." The U.S. Census shows 8.4 percent of Utah County was made up of Hispanics in 2005. In the Esplin motion, it was argued that Hispanics make up about 3.5 percent of the state's jury pool.

Getting those numbers up would be difficult because records used to create the jury pool include driver's licenses, tax records and voter registration, none of which require an indication of race or ethnicity.

The state Administrative Office of the Courts doesn't currently have anyone addressing the issue, said spokeswoman Nancy Volmer.

In 4th District Court on Thursday, prosecutor Randy Kennard suggested Judge Gary Stott use Davis's ruling in the matter, to which Stott answered that Holguin-Albo was his case and he would be the one to decide on the motion. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 18.

Holguin-Albo stood quietly throughout the discussion, chains occasionally jingling in the quiet courtroom.

The 28-year-old is accused of stabbing Raul Gonzales to death last year. According to police, the two men got into a fight at Holguin-Albo's Provo apartment. Witnesses told police Holguin-Albo went into the kitchen, got a knife and stabbed Gonzales.

According to the probable cause statement, Holguin-Albo admitted to stabbing Gonzales after he was arrested, telling police, "my friend was hitting very hard, he was trying to kill me. ... I grabbed a knife and stabbed him. He was my friend. How is my friendfi"

Holguin-Albo has gone through a few lawyers. The public defender's office transferred the case to another attorney after an intern from the office stored a bloody shirt from the crime scene that police left behind. Holguin-Albo's second attorney, Paige Benjamin, requested that another attorney be appointed to the case after a potential witness approached him at a bank and began speaking to him about the case.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.