James Ashby, the former Rocky Ford cop in the on-duty shooting death last year of a 27-year-old man, is set to appear in court Thursday to be arraigned.
Ashby is scheduled to enter a plea to charges of second-degree murder, criminally negligent homicide and a violent crime resulting in death or injury.
Ashby killed Jack Jacquez on Oct. 12 . Ashby told investigators he thought Jacquez was a burglar, court records show.
Ashby never identified himself as a police officer and had no reason to believe Jacquez was committing any crime before the shooting, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found.
Ashby told investigators he believed Jacquez was going to attack him with a wooden baseball bat when he fired two bullets at him, striking him once in the back. Investigators found that Jacquez was not a threat when he was shot.
Ashby was arrested and charged in the shooting in November and is free on $150,000 bail. He was fired from the Rocky Ford Police Department the day of his arrest.
The shooting sparked an outcry in Rocky Ford, a town of about 4,000 roughly 50 miles east of Pueblo. Protesters cited parallels to the police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York.
A judge ruled during a preliminary hearing last month that there was .
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul
