CMU STUDENTS HELPING WITH SKELETAL INVESTIGATION
GRAND JUNCTION (AP) – Investigators say hikers found a nearly complete adult skeleton and some clothing in the western Colorado desert. Mesa County Sheriff’s Office investigators and Colorado Mesa University forensic research students worked together Wednesday to collect the bones in the desert north of Grand Junction. Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Megan Terlecky says the office is working with the Mesa County Coroner’s Office to identify the remains found Tuesday. Terlecky says authorities believe the bones belong to one person and are looking through missing persons cases. She says investigators are treating the area like a crime scene. Terlecky says the students helping with the remains are highly trained and vetted by their professors for the task.
1989 MURDER SUSPECT TO BE RETRIED
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) – A man who was set free after being tried for a Colorado murder in Mexico is facing prosecution for the crime again in the United States. 67-year-old Rafael Garcia, accused of killing a man involved with his ex-wife in 1989 in Palisade, was arrested in Denver on Monday after police found that he was still wanted for the killing. Garcia was first captured twenty years after the killing in Mexico. Because of Mexico’s hesitancy to extradite people to governments with the death penalty, prosecutors agreed to have Mexican authorities prosecute him but he wasn’t convicted. Mesa County District Attorney Rubinstein says double jeopardy doesn’t apply because Garcia’s original case was heard in a completely separate jurisdiction.
CHARGES UNLIKELY IN SELF-DEFENSE CASE
DENVER (AP) – Investigators in Alamosa County say a woman appears to have been acting in self-defense when she shot and killed a man at her home in Hooper. Sheriff Robert Jackson says the homeowner was housing a former girlfriend of 53-year-old Tony Alonzo Ferrara, who was barred from the area by a restraining order. Ferrara, wielding a realistic-looking BB gun, was shot by the homeowner as he threatened her while trying to contact his ex-girlfriend Oct. 3.
MORMON CHURCH WEIGHS IN ON BALLOT ISSUES
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Mormon leaders are urging members to vote against ballot measures that would legalize marijuana in Arizona, California and Nevada and a Colorado proposal to make assisted suicide legal. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints tries to maintain political neutrality by refraining from backing one party or endorsing candidates, but leaders sometimes weigh in on what they consider crucial moral issues.
