FORT COLLINS, Colo.—A man who admitted killing a woman who disappeared after leaving a Denver nightclub has pleaded guilty in a brutal attack on woman in Fort Collins.
Travis Forbes pleaded guilty to attempted first degree murder on Tuesday. The victim watched from the front row of the courtroom.
The deal calls for Forbes to spend 48 years in prison on top of the life sentence he received Monday in the nightclub slaying.
Larimer County district attorney Larry Abrahamson said he asked for the additional time to make sure that Forbes is never released from prison.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
A man who pleaded guilty to murder in the death of a woman who disappeared after leaving a Denver nightclub in March is set to plead guilty in the July attack of a Fort Collins woman.
Travis Forbes agreed to plead guilty Tuesday in a July 5 apartment fire in Fort Collins that forced a woman to jump from a second-story window.
The plea deal was part of a joint resolution by prosecutors in Denver and Fort Collins in the death of Kenia Monge (mon-HAY’) and the attack on the Fort Collins woman, whose name is not being used by The Associated Press because she is also an alleged victim of sexual assault.
Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey said Monday that Forbes agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder in Monge’s death and serve life in prison without the possibility for parole in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. Morrissey said Forbes also agreed to plead guilty to attempted first degree-murder in the Fort Collins case and be sentenced to 48 years in prison, with a mandatory five years parole.
Prosecutors in Fort Collins declined to comment, citing a gag order issued in that case.
Forbes was sentenced to life Monday immediately after pleading guilty to Monge’s death in an unusual move that came at the beginning of the case and less than three weeks after he led authorities to her body.
Morrissey said Forbes’ arrest in the Fort Collins attack provided the break in the death of Monge, 19.
Anthony Lee, Monge’s stepfather, said the he met with Forbes at a gas station after Forbes sent a text to Monge’s phone asking if she made it home all right. Police questioned Forbes and searched his 1999 box van, but Lee said the overwhelming smell of bleach from the van raised suspicions.
Lee said that despite the suspicions he kept an open mind that Forbes was innocent. That is, until Forbes’ arrest in the brutal Fort Collins attack.
“After that, there was only one question for him: ‘Where’s Kenia?'”‘ Lee said.
Morrissey said as part of the plea deal, Forbes agreed to provide investigators all the details of the case.
“He may say it was an accident, a mistake,” Lee said of Forbes’ courtroom characterization of Monge’s death. “But that Fort Collins case demonstrated that not only was he capable of violence, but that he was doing it.”
Forbes, who has a criminal record for assault, trespassing and theft, worked at a bakery in the Denver area at the time of Monge’s disappearance. He faced an auto theft allegation for allegedly driving a friend’s SUV to Texas, but that charge was later dropped.
———
Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan,
