A Carbondale man and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
, 47, was found guilty of first-degree murder and child abuse, prosecutors said.
Navarrete-Portillo killed his wife, 30-year-old , in February 2015 before fleeing and driving a sports utility vehicle into the back of a semi-trailer in an attempt to kill himself, investigators say.
Navarrete-Portillo told an investigator that he didn’t remember how the fatal attack happened but that he was “crazy at the time” and “not in his right mind,” according to an arrest affidavit. He also said that an argument precipitated the attack but that he didn’t remember what it was about.
Navarrete-Portillo admitted to the slaying after the violent car wreck as he spoke with emergency responders who were taking him by helicopter to medical care in Grand Junction, police said.
Sherry A. Caloia, 9th Judicial District attorney, told The Denver Post on Thursday that the sentence was handed down immediately after Navarrete-Portillo was found guilty by a Garfield County jury. The verdict came after more than a week of trial.
The Post Independent newspaper in Glenwood Springs reported that Navarrete-Portillo that his wife told him about cheating on him, which sent him into a drunken rage.
The last homicide in Carbondale happened in April 2003.
