Castle Rock – A lawyer for Jose Luis Rubi-Nava will argue that he is mentally retarded and should not face the death penalty if convicted on charges that he dragged his girlfriend to death behind his car last September in north Douglas County.
Rubi-Nava’s lawyer, Tamara Brady, turned over evidence of Rubi-Nava’s mental capacity to prosecutors last week. Assistant district Leslie Hanson told Judge Paul King in court today that prosecutors needed 60 days to formally evaluate the information.
“We obviously take very seriously any allegation of mental deficiency,” she told the judge.
King postponed Rubi-Nava’s arraignment until Aug. 3. Once Rubi-Nava is arraigned, District Attorney Carol Chambers will have 30 days to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
Rubi-Nava confessed to an investigator after he was arrested at a Highlands Ranch parking lot last fall, a day after the discovery of Maria Franco-Fierros’ body on Surrey Ridge Drive, at the end of a 1.3-mile blood trail.
According to testimony in a preliminary hearing, Rubi-Nava told investigators that the two had argued after Franco-Fierros was hours late coming home after work. They went for a drive but the fight escalated until Rubi-Nava pulled off the Interstate 25 exit, placed a tie-down strap around his girlfriend’s neck and drove off.
Rubi-Nava, 36, and Franco-Fierros, 49, both Mexican citizens, shared an apartment in Glendale. She had worked in a fast-food restaurant, and he was a landscaper.
A photograph of Rubi-Nava and his wife, back in Mexico, was found near where the dragging began, which led to his arrest.
Rubi-Nava has been held without bail in the Douglas County Detention Center since his arrest.
