In the hours before he allegedly shot and killed William Dwayne Andrews on a Boulder street, Joseph Carlos Abeyta went to the Longmont home of his former girlfriend and threatened to kill her, then went to a second Longmont home, where he threatened to kill a woman, her daughter and Andrews, according to court documents.
After Andrews was killed, police say, Abeyta returned to Longmont, where he confronted the son of another former girlfriend at a gas station.
The young man saw blood and a shotgun inside Abeyta’s car, punched Abeyta twice in the face and fled, according to an affidavit by Boulder Detective David Spraggs.
The three incidents in Longmont and the shooting of Andrews in Boulder all took place on the evening of Jan. 23. The Longmont SWAT team arrested Abeyta shortly before dawn the next morning at his mother’s home in Longmont.
Abeyta, 41, was charged Jan. 29 with murder in Andrews’ slaying.
According to the affidavit, the woman, her daughter and Andrews were all terrified of Abeyta during the second of the Longmont incidents, which happened less than an hour before Andrews, 47, was gunned down.
The woman and her daughter described Abeyta as drunk and “weird and crazy” during the half-hour he was in their home.
They said Abeyta and Andrews, who also was drunk, showed up at their home about 7 p.m. Jan. 23, with Abeyta carrying a sawed-off shotgun.
Abeyta became increasingly agitated, particularly after Andrews told him to stop making passes at the child.
Abeyta picked up the shotgun and said he was going to kill Andrews, the woman and her daughter. At that point, Andrews hit Abeyta.
The woman told the men to leave or she would call the police.
The woman told investigators that Abeyta said if she called the police, he would kill her. Andrews told Abeyta they had to leave because the police were going to show up.
About an hour later, a motorist called Boulder police after finding Andrews’ body in the 1200 block of Sumac Avenue in Boulder. Andrews had been shot twice in the chest and once in the face.
Boulder police, based on the accounts of witnesses in the neighborhood, aired a description of the vehicle thought to be involved in the shooting.
Longmont officers recognized the vehicle as the same one that Abeyta had driven when he is alleged to have robbed his ex-girlfriend in Longmont about 6 p.m. Jan. 23.
The former girlfriend said Abeyta was carrying a shotgun and a handgun, pointed the shotgun at her face and threatened to kill her.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
