Shawna Nelson was bent on getting rid of Heather Garraus and plotted for weeks on how to best kill her romantic rival, Nelson’s former best friend testified Tuesday.
Michelle Moore, a former Weld County sheriff’s deputy, said Nelson asked her about certain scenarios that would allow her to get away with murdering Garraus, including how to not leave DNA evidence.
“She often expressed that she hated her (Garraus), that she was standing in the way of what she wanted, . . . the man she wanted,” Moore told jurors.
Nelson is on trial in Larimer County on a charge of first-degree murder. Prosecutors claim that a masked Nelson gunned down Garraus on Jan. 23, 2007, as Garraus left the Greeley credit union where she worked.
Nelson had a three-year affair with Garraus’ husband, then-Greeley Police Officer Ignacio Garraus. A child was born of the affair, and the boy is now being raised by Nelson’s estranged husband, Ken.
Moore was charged with plotting along with Shawna Nelson to kill Garraus. But on Tuesday, Moore agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of accessory to a crime.
A visibly upset Moore testified Tuesday that Nelson once asked her to cut the brake lines on Garraus’ car. When Moore pretended to do so, Nelson “just smiled and laughed,” Moore said.
Nelson hoped Ignacio Garraus would leave his wife, but when he didn’t, it enraged Nelson, Moore said.
“She focused her anger at Heather,” she said.
During a conversation at a parking lot in Greeley, Nelson told Moore she couldn’t take being apart from Ignacio Garraus any longer.
“Well, I could just shoot her,” Moore said Nelson said. “She had said that she could just drive down to the credit union and just shoot her.”
Ken Nelson, a former Weld County sheriff’s investigator, testified Tuesday that when he heard his wife’s name being broadcast as a possible suspect in the shooting, he thought someone was pulling a prank.
On his way home, he said he saw his wife driving his Ford pickup and he got out of his vehicle to confront her.
“I stood in front of the pickup shouting for her to get out, asking her what she had done,” Nelson said.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
