GREELEY, Colo.—The trial of a woman accused of gunning down a romantic rival is scheduled to start Feb. 19.
In a quick hearing Friday, District Judge Roger Klein set the trial date for Shawna Nelson.
Nelson, a former Weld County sheriff’s dispatcher, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Heather Garraus, 37, last January.
A hearing was scheduled Jan. 25 for pre-trial motions.
Nelson’s family has said she had a three-year affair with Garraus’ husband, Ignacio Garraus, a former Greeley police officer, and had a son by him.
The trial was supposed to start Nov. 29 but was pushed back after her friend, Michelle Moore, was arrested as an accomplice. Defense attorneys asked for more time to prepare.
Moore, a former sheriff’s deputy, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. The arrest warrant affidavit alleges Moore and Nelson discussed how Heather Garraus would be killed and how Nelson would make her getaway.
The affidavit alleges Moore advised Nelson to wear gloves and a disguise and possibly leave someone else’s DNA at the scene. Moore also advised Nelson to “muzzle the gunshots and pick up her shell casings,” the affidavit said.
The affidavit also alleges the two women discussed drugging Shawna Nelson’s husband, Ken, to keep him asleep at home at the time of the shooting, but said that plan was foiled.
The affidavit says that shortly after Garraus was killed, Moore gave police an alibi for Shawna Nelson, saying Nelson was bathing at Moore’s house at the time of the shooting.
Heather Garraus was shot to death as she left her job at the Colorado State Employees Credit Union in Greeley. Witnesses said a woman wearing black clothes and a black mask told Garraus, “You ruined my life. Get on the ground.”
Garraus knelt, and the woman in black fired two shots and fled, the witnesses said. Shawna Nelson was arrested a short distance away.
Ken Nelson resigned from the Weld County sheriff’s department, where he was an investigator, but was later arrested for allegedly possessing a gun that may have been used in the shooting.
An affidavit in Ken Nelson’s case said he had heard over law-enforcement radio shortly after the shooting that his wife was a suspect. The affidavit said he was rushing home when he saw his wife’s pickup and stopped to talk to her and may have reached into her truck.
Authorities say he later turned in the gun.
