Arapahoe County – The wife of one of three men suspected in a witness killing testified Thursday that one of the suspects told her he killed the witness’ fiancée because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
At a bond hearing Thursday in district court in Arapahoe County, LaToya Ray, the wife of suspect Robert Ray, said suspect Sir Mario Owens told her he shot Vivian Wolfe the day after it happened.
“We knew he did the (shooting),” LaToya Ray said.
The testimony came in a bond hearing for Robert Ray, Owens and Parish Carter.
The three are suspected of killing Javad Marshall-Fields and Wolfe, both 22, on June 20, 2005. Fields was set to testify against Ray in connection with a homicide a year earlier, but he and Wolfe were gunned down as they were driving down an Aurora street.
After LaToya Ray’s testimony Thursday, the hearing was continued until late November.
In the 2005 shooting, investigators believe Ray paid Owens and Carter in drugs to kill Fields.
On Thursday, LaToya Ray said that Carter and Owens would do almost anything for her husband, who ran a barber shop in Aurora where drugs were sold outside.
“Everyone wanted to be Robert,” she said.
LaToya Ray was originally charged as an accessory to the 2004 murder of Gregory Vann, but she received a deferred sentence, meaning if she stays out of trouble, the felony would be dropped.
Aurora police Detective Gretchen Fronapfel clarified a few points on the stand Thursday.
A day earlier, she said a juvenile had warned Owens and Carter when Fields was heading down the street where the two were waiting in ambush. But on Thursday, the detective said Carter told the juvenile someone else made the call.
Staff writer Carlos Illescas can be reached at 303-820-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com.
