Aurora – Mothers of two recent college graduates slain this week stood before a phalanx of TV cameras Thursday, pleading for someone to help solve Monday night’s shooting that killed Javad Marshall- Fields and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe.
“Someone in this community knows something,” Rhonda Fields said. “Someone has heard something. Someone has seen something. … Someone knows the truth. Someone needs to tell it.”
Marshall-Fields, 22, was to testify next week in a trial against Robert Keith Ray, who is charged with being an accessory to a July 4, 2004, shooting at Lowry Park that killed Gregory Vann and injured Marshall-Fields.
Fields’ family believes Monday’s killing happened because Marshall-Fields had identified Ray as the driver of the getaway vehicle in the 2004 homicide.
They say he was threatened two months ago at a picnic at the Aurora Reservoir and last Sunday night at Gibby’s Sports Bar on South Havana Street, not far from where the couple were ambushed while they were in a car.
A manager at Gibby’s confirmed Marshall-Fields and Wolfe were at the bar, which has a video surveillance system. Police have interviewed employees, but the manager wouldn’t comment further.
Authorities say Marshall- Fields never contacted them about the threats.
A connection between the two cases hasn’t been proved, police said. But it also hasn’t been ruled out, said police spokeswoman Kathleen Walsh.
Police have no suspects in Monday’s double homicide and won’t say whether there was more than one shooter.
Investigators would like to speak to Ray about Monday’s shooting, but Walsh said Ray has an attorney and they have not been able to talk to Ray. Calls to Ray’s attorney weren’t returned Thursday.
Prosecutors will ask Monday morning for Ray’s trial to be postponed until later in the summer. It’s unclear whether prosecutors will ask to use Marshall-Fields’ witness statements.
One other witness in the Vann homicide has come forward expressing fear about testifying, and the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office is working with that person, according to DA spokesman Mike Knight.
Thursday’s news conference with the victims’ families in an Aurora municipal courtroom was filled with tears and anger from relatives of the slain college sweethearts.
Family members spoke about the two – recent graduates of Colorado State University who were planning a life together. Marshall-Fields had given Wolfe a ring three weeks before. Now, they’ll be laid to rest next to each other, “so they don’t have to be buried alone,” said Rhonda Fields.
Marshall-Fields’ sister held up a photograph of her brother and his fiancée while their mother spoke about her only son.
“If you look at his smile, you can tell he lit up the world with that smile,” she said. “He was tall, handsome and bright. He was a natural leader and he loved life. … He had a bright future, and that was taken away from him.”
His sister, Maisha Pollard- Fields, said the family is going to war.
“I want every criminal who has any connection to this crime to know that we are going to hunt you down. … We’re looking for you in every nook and cranny. We are going to be on the streets. We are going to be in churches. We are going to be everywhere that you think we are not, looking for you.”
Christine Wolfe, Vivian’s mother, asked for the public’s help in finding her child’s killers.
“Somebody knows somewhere out there,” she said. “Don’t be scared. If you don’t stop crime, next time, very soon … it’s going to be your kids, your boys, your daughters.”
Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call Aurora Police Detective Gretchen Fronapfel at 303-739-6013 or CrimeStoppers at 720-913-STOP (7867).
