Greeley – The beginning of the end for Heather Garraus came when her husband sneaked out one night in December to meet his girlfriend, Shawna Nelson, at a Greeley bar.
Nelson – who was married to Weld County sheriff’s deputy Ken Nelson – had already had Ignacio Garraus’ baby and had Ignacio’s nickname tattooed on her leg, prosecutors say.
But when Heather Garraus confronted her husband – a longtime Greeley police officer – later that night, he agreed to end his three-year sexual relationship with Nelson.
Prosecutors claimed Thursday in Weld County District Court that Nelson was so enraged by Ignacio’s move to break up with her that she killed Heather Garraus execution- style Jan. 23.
“In essence, this was a lying- in-wait execution,” said prosecutor Cliff Riedel.
Judge Roger Klein ordered 35-year-old Shawna Nelson to stand trial for first-degree murder and denied her request for bail. Klein ruled after a lengthy preliminary hearing with only one witness, Greeley police Detective Greg Tharp.
Tharp described how the affair between Garraus and Nelson became an open secret among law enforcement in Greeley. However, Ignacio tried to end it when Nelson got a tattoo of Ignacio’s nickname on her leg a year before the murder.
“He was alarmed,” Tharp said, that his wife would find out, and he tried to break it off with Nelson.
But Ignacio Garraus agreed to continue to see Nelson. In March 2006 she had the officer’s baby, Tharp said.
On Dec. 16, after Ignacio Garraus rendezvoused with Nelson, he later admitted to Heather Garraus he was having an affair.
After he told Nelson he could no longer continue the relationship, Nelson began sending Ignacio and Heather Garraus angry text messages and told her friends she wanted to kill Heather Garraus, Tharp said.
She also told a friend and former co-worker that she vented her frustration by imagining Heather Garraus’ face on a target where she practiced shooting a .40-caliber handgun.
Police searched Nelson’s truck after the shooting and found a black mask and shoes that the assailant allegedly wore. They found Nelson’s DNA on the items, Tharp said.
They also found three live rounds of ammunition for a .40-caliber weapon.
Shawna Nelson’s attorney, Kevin Strobel, argued that there was neither eyewitness nor physical evidence directly linking Nelson to the crime.
“All they (prosecutors) have is a glorified assumption,” Strobel said.
He also said that once Ignacio Garraus decided to split from Nelson, she stayed away.
Both Ken Nelson and Ignacio Garraus have since left their respective departments. Nelson moved to Washington and Garraus to Florida.
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
