CASTLE ROCK, Colo.—A 6-year-old girl’s life was spared during the slayings of her mother and uncle because she wasn’t part of a $20,000 murder-for-hire plot, according to court testimony.
One of the four men facing first-degree murder charges in the Feb. 23 slayings of Amara Wells and Robert Rafferty detailed the alleged plot in an interview with sheriff’s detectives. A video of the interview was played in court Tuesday during a three-day preliminary hearing that was to continue Wednesday.
District Judge Paul King will determine whether enough evidence exists to place the four on trial.
Christopher Wells, Amara Wells’ estranged husband, is accused of arranging the slayings. Josiah Sher, Micah Woody, and Matthew Plake are accused of participating in the plot.
Sher, who’s accused of being the gunman, said he was to receive $10,000 for killing Amara Wells, $5,000 for Rafferty, and an additional $5,000 for killing Rafferty’s wife, Tamara, who wasn’t home at the time of the slayings.
Douglas County sheriff’s Sgt. Jason Weaver testified that bloody fingerprints on a light switch in the girl’s room indicated that the attacker searched the house for the girl.
“I did see her. (I) let her go,” Sher said during the interview, according to KMGH-TV ( ).
Christopher Wells, who was in jail at the time of the killings, had worked at a used car dealership in Colorado Springs with the three other suspects.
The Wells were going through a divorce at the time, according to court documents. Amara Wells and her daughter were staying with the Raffertys. Tamara Rafferty is Christopher Wells’ sister.
Weaver testified that the 6-year-year old girl told him that she woke up in the middle of the night and saw her mother dead and her uncle fighting with a burglar.
“The burglar tried to get me,” Weaver quoted the girl as saying during testimony.
The girl hid in her room, then ran hundreds of yards to a neighbor’s house to summon help.
Weaver noted that Sher had a mark on his forehead that was identical to an elk ring worn by Rafferty. Sher, in the taped interview, said he stabbed Amara Wells then slit her throat after he fired two shots at her head. He then confronted Robert Rafferty, who was armed with a shotgun, and overpowered him after a violent fight.
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Information from: KMGH-TV,
