FORT COLLINS — Shawna Nelson so wanted an ideal life with her married lover — then-Greeley police Officer Ignacio Garraus — and the son they produced that she pulled off a vicious murder to make it all come true, a prosecutor said Thursday.
“She wanted the victim (Heather Garraus) dead so the three of them could run off together and live the fairy tale,” Larimer County Chief Deputy District Attorney Greg Lammons told jurors.
Nelson, charged with first-degree murder, faces life in prison in the Jan. 23, 2007, slaying of Heather Garraus in Greeley. Nelson, a former Greeley police dispatcher, had a long affair with Garraus’ husband.
But when Ignacio Garraus refused to leave his wife and share custody of the boy with Nelson, she killed Heather Garraus to get her out of the way so she could be with him, Lammons said. “Her obsession was with Ignacio.”
Physical evidence, including the Halloween mask the killer wore as well as the bullets used to kill Garraus, all point to Nelson, Lammons said.
Jurors, seated Thursday morning, were presented with a different picture by defense attorney Annette Kundelius.
No real evidence tied Nelson to the scene, and Greeley police didn’t do much to investigate whether a disgruntled customer at the credit union where Heather Garraus worked might have killed her, Kundelius said.
Nelson’s affair with Ignacio Garraus was never a big secret in Greeley, said Kundelius, adding that Nelson — who was married to then-Weld County sheriff’s investigator Ken Nelson — never threatened Heather Garraus.
In fact, the Nelsons had agreed to adopt the son of Ignacio and Shawna.
“Shawna was moving on with her life,” Kundelius said.
Brad Mitchell, who worked with Heather Garraus at the credit union, testified Thursday that he saw someone dressed in a flowing black robe and mask approach Garraus with a gun in the parking lot after work on the day she was killed.
According to Mitchell, the shooter stated, “You ruined my life. Get on the ground.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
