A man under investigation in the New Year’s shooting deaths of a young girl and her aunt may face first-degree murder charges even though the man claims he was shooting into the air at a streetlight, legal analysts said Wednesday.
Pedro Cortez, 25, told police he was aiming at the light at the corner of West Wells Place and Winona Court with his .44-caliber revolver.
A short time later, police were called to a house in the 4400 block of West 11th Avenue where they found Angelica Martinez, 11, and her aunt, Rebecca Yanez, 47, fatally shot by a single bullet that pierced the side of the home where the family had gathered New Year’s Eve.
The house where victims were shot is across from where the bullet was fired, investigators said in court papers. Lakewood and Dry Gulch Park separates the house from the place where Cortez fired the shot.
Three former prosecutors — including former Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant — said they believe that Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey will aggressively pursue the case and may file charges of extreme-indifference first-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence upon conviction.
Under that Colorado statute, someone can be convicted of extreme-indifference first-degree murder if “he knowingly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to a person or persons other than himself.”
The person must exhibit “an attitude of universal malice manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life generally.”
“It is more than stupid,” Grant said of people who engage in shooting weapons into the air to celebrate an occasion. “It is willfully taking someone’s life into your hands. If someone is hurt, you are the responsible party.”
Seeking toughest charge
Former prosecutors Craig Silverman and Nathan Chambers, now both defense attorneys, said they believe Morrissey will aggressively pursue the case.
“It is a tragic, tragic case,” Chambers said. “I think a DA — in a case where two completely innocent people are killed — is going to file the toughest charge he think will stick.”
“I expect Mitch to be as aggressive as possible,” Silverman added. “Everyone is outraged by this.”
The three former prosecutors and Larry Pozner, a longtime Denver defense attorney, said that Morrissey has other, less-serious charges he could file.
Those include manslaughter, which is a Class 4 felony, and criminally negligent homicide, a Class 5 felony.
Pozner believes that the most likely charge will be manslaughter, defined as recklessly causing the death of another.
Pozner believes that the extreme-indifference first-degree murder statute is reserved for cases in which a person fires directly into a crowd, car or home.
“I would say that the prosecution would start with manslaughter unless he was really aiming at the house,” Pozner said.
But Silverman has no doubt that prosecutors will file the first-degree murder charge if they believe that the shooter was firing at a snowman on the front porch of the house. The bullet entered the house above and to the side of the snowman’s black hat.
Silverman said what path the bullet took will be extremely important in determining what charges are filed and in the final verdict, if the case goes to a jury.
During a brief court hearing Wednesday, Denver County Judge Melvin Okamoto denied Cortez immediate bond. Harvey Steinberg, Cortez’s lawyer, then asked for a full bond hearing as soon as possible.
Watching the proceeding was Norma Kaholo, one of Angelica’s aunts.
Kaholo dismissed the idea that a “night of revelry” by Cortez led to an accidental shooting.
“There is no accident about it. Everything that goes up comes down,” she said. “Someone knowingly shooting a gun is no accident.”
According to neighbors, Cortez moved to an apartment about a block from the location of the shooting in the 1200 block of Wolff Street several weeks ago with a woman and a child.
His next-door neighbor Gloria Salinas, 66, said she often saw Cortez smoking a cigarette outside his bottom-floor apartment.
“I just saw them coming and going,” Salinas said.
Early Tuesday morning, she was awakened by loud music at Cortez’s house and what sounded like firecrackers. There was a party with about four to six people in the home, she said.
She said she called police but doesn’t know if officers responded to the call.
“Scared me”
Rutilio Gonzalez, 45, who lives in a nearby apartment building, said he and his wife were awakened by loud gunshots.
“It kind of scared me,” Gonzalez said.
Cortez was convicted as an adult in 2000 of aggravated robbery and menacing, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.
According to Denver District Court records, Cortez, then 17, and four other boys robbed the home of drug dealers in the 400 block of South Broadway on Aug. 4, 1999.
Cortez admitted to police he carried a black Ruger .357 handgun.
The thieves broke into the home, and when the owner entered the house, the five assaulted him and fled, according to court records.
The suspects returned to the house to again try to rob it, but the owner called police.
Cortez was tried as an adult and sentenced to four years in the Department of Corrections’ Youth Offender Services program.
He was released in January 2004, said Katheryn Sanguinetti, DOC spokeswoman.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
