FORT COLLINS — A prosecutor painted Tanner Flores as a jealous and controlling boyfriend who intended to kill Ashley Doolittle, as the trial against the Berthoud teen accused in her shooting death got underway Tuesday.
Flores, 19, is accused of shooting and killing Doolittle, 18, in June 2016 while she was passenger in his truck on a southern Larimer County road. He faces life in prison on each of two first-degree murder allegations, as well as up to 32 years on a felony kidnapping charge in the case.
In his opening statement, Larimer County District Attorney Daniel McDonald painted a dark picture of Flores’ mental state at the time of Doolittle’s death. And while Flores’ defense attorneys did not deny the teen caused Doolittle’s death, they claim his actions do not fulfill the requirements of the first-degree murder charges he faces.
“‘She just kind of glared at me and then turned away, so I grabbed the gun and shot her.’ Those were Tanner Flores’ words,” McDonald told the jury of five women and nine men in his opening, quoting from a video-taped interview between Flores and Mesa County Sheriff’s Office investigators. “He went on to say, ‘I thought it would be an instant thing.'”
Flores was described by McDonald as a jealous boyfriend who didn’t want to accept a breakup between the two.
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