Shortly before Raul Gomez-Garcia shot two Denver policemen, he told a number of friends that he planned to kill a police officer, Detective Teresa Garcia testified today.
One of the friends he told, Garcia said, was Jaime Arana-Del Angel.
Garcia said Arana-Del Angel told investigators about Gomez-Garcia’s threats in late May 2005, a couple of weeks after the May 8 shootings of Detectives Donald Young and Jack Bishop.
The men were gunned down as they provided security at the Salon Ocampo social hall, 1733 W. Mississippi Ave. Young died; Bishop survived.
Garcia said during her interview with Arana-Del Angel, he described how he helped Gomez-Garcia bury bullets and magazines in the backyard of the home they shared.
Earlier today in testimony, Arana-Del Angel repeatedly denied that he had heard Gomez-Garcia say he was going to kill the officer or helped him bury bullets and magazines.
Arana-Del Angel admitted that he helped Gomez-Garcia leave town after the shooting by helping him drive toward Las Vegas. In separate vehicles, they drove westbound on I-70 with Arana-Del Angel leaving Gomez-Garcia in the vicinity of Parachute.
But he denied that when he helped Gomez-Garcia, he knew he had killed a police officer.
Garcia said that wasn’t true.
She said that Arana-Del Angel told investigators that he was aware Gomez-Garcia had killed Young before he helped him escape.
In June, Arana-Del Angel received the maximum sentence of 12 years in prison for helping bury the evidence and aiding Gomez-Garcia in his getaway. Gomez-Garcia fled to Mexico and was arrested by Mexican authorities on June 4, 2005. He was returned to Denver six months later.
At the time of Arana-Del Angel’s sentencing, Denver District Judge Robert McGahey said it was Arana-Del Angel who drove the “scout car” as they fled west.
“If the essence of this crime is not doing the right thing, this defendant (Arana-Del Angel) did it in spades,” McGahey said at the time.
During his testimony today, Arana-Del Angel said he was clueless about what really happened and said the police put words in his mouth. He said they threatened to put him in a jail cell with a large inmate, who they said would rape him. They also told him that if he didn’t tell the truth he’d take the fall for Gomez-Garcia.
“I told them the truth,” Arana-Del Angel testified today. “I said (to the police): ‘I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know”‘
“They (the police) were telling me how things were supposed to happen,” he added. “They were telling me how to say this and that.”
He said that after hours of interrogation on several separate days, he said he decided to tell the officers what they wanted to hear. But he said he did it because he feared he’d be charged with first-degree murder and spend his entire life in prison.
“Alright, if you want me to say it, he (Gomez-Garcia killed him. You (the police) are saying it. I’m saying whatever you want.”
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
