A 21-year-old co-worker has been arrested in connection with the slaying of Burger King employee Celia Meza, Arvada police said Wednesday.
Anthony Cole of Denver was being held on suspicion of first-degree murder and robbery and is being held without bail at the Jefferson County Jail, said Susan Medina, spokesperson for the Arvada Police Department.
“Police cannot comment on the role Cole may have played in the crime because of the ongoing nature of the investigation and due to the fact that official documents related to the case have been sealed by a Jefferson County judge,” Medina said.
Several people entered the Burger King at West 64th Avenue and Ward Road around 3 a.m. Sunday, opened fire and robbed it, police said.
The second worker was not identified after the Burger King was robbed. Police did say then that Meza’s co-worker was uninjured.
Residents of the area speculated that the suspects knew the area well, using a complex route to flee the scene. Police recovered black clothing, including a T-shirt and a pullover, along Welch Street, about a mile south of the restaurant.
Earlier Wednesday, two other suspects in the slaying waived extradition in Georgia and will be promptly returned to Colorado, Georgia authorities said.
About 12:20 a.m. Tuesday, members of the Savannah-Chatham Police Department SWAT team arrested the pair – a 17-year-old juvenile and 21-year-old Anthony John Lowe – as they arrived in Savannah, Ga., by bus.
The pair appeared Wednesday before Judge Perry Brannen, chief judge of the Chatham County (Ga.) Superior Court.
Brannen advised them of their rights and the potential charges they face in Colorado, according to Sgt. Tommy Tillman of the Chatham County Sheriff’s Department.
Tillman said Lowe and the juvenile were arrested on the basis of an arrest warrant signed by Jefferson County Judge Charles Hoppin. The judge said the warrant was based on evidence in an affidavit that there is probable cause to believe the men committed first-degree murder, second-degree assault, aggravated robbery, first-degree burglary, second-degree kidnapping and theft.
Carlos Rodriguez, who was married to Meza, rushed to the Burger King on Sunday after not hearing from Meza for hours. He described his wife, who is from Mexico, as a “very nice person” who had agreed to work the 11 p.m.-to-7 a.m. shift late Saturday and early Sunday.
She normally worked during the week and worked the weekend shift after a supervisor asked her if she was available that night, he said.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
