One of two suspects in a Carbondale robbery earlier this year — their eventual arrest — has been accused in a Las Vegas killing.
Benjamin Weeks, 19, is charged with first-degree felony murder, felony burglary while in possession of a gun and felony robbery in the Las Vegas case, Carbondale police say. Arrangements are being made for the teen’s extradition to Nevada, though the details of that process have yet to be finalized.
Weeks and his 19-year-old cousin, Nicholas Alexander Ameral, are at gunpoint on Feb. 16. Shortly thereafter, warrants were issued for their arrest.
On Feb. 21, according to the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, the pair were identified while riding a Roaring Fork Transportation Authority bus that was heading toward Glenwood Springs.
“The bus was stopped by officers from the sheriff’s office, Basalt Police Department and Snowmass Village Police Department,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. “The men jumped from a bus emergency window as officers approached, fleeing on foot in the area of the Arbaney Kittle trail.”
About 25 officers from several law enforcement agencies, as well as an aircraft from the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control equipped with imaging equipment, searched the area for the men. Eventually, on Feb. 22, near Basalt through clues gleaned from one of their cellphones.
Both were suffering from exposure-related injuries from their time in the backcountry and were taken to hospitals, authorities say.
Bail was set at $100,000 for the pair and they were booked into the Garfield County jail.
The Carbondale Police Department says on March 2, Las Vegas police detectives came to the Glenwood Springs and Carbondale areas to investigate a homicide. Eventually, the Nevada investigators obtained a no-bond warrant for Weeks.
Details in the Las Vegas slaying have not been released.
