Officer Ashby
Posted on 01/15/2015 6:04:12 PM PST by TankerKC
LA JUNTA, Colo. - A judge ruled Thursday that there is probable cause for Rocky Ford Police Officer James Ashby to stand trial for second-degree murder in the on-duty shooting death of a 27-year-old man.
Ashby will be arraigned on Feb. 12 at 11:30 a.m. in La Junta. He is currently free on $150,000 bond.
Ashby is accused of killing Jack Jacquez, Jr. on Oct. 12, 2014.
Relatives say Ashby followed Jacquez to his home and shot him in the back after a struggle over a skateboard on Oct. 12.
Authorities had not released the circumstances surrounding the shooting and court documents had been sealed, but information from the autopsy was released in court Thursday.
Otero County Coroner Robert Fowler said the autopsy revealed the bullet entered through Jacquez's back, and went through three of the four chambers of his heart, according to our partners at KRDO. The bullet stopped behind the left breast.
A man named Kyle Moore was going a ride-along with Ashby when the shooting occurred.
Moore said Ashby tried to talk to Jacquez, who was riding a skate board on Highway 50, but Jacquez kept walking, KRDO reported.
Moore stayed in the car and said trees blocked his view of Ashby and Jacquez.
A few minutes later, Moore said he heard Ashby yell "Let me see your hands!" twice, and then heard him say "Drop the bat!" twice.
Then Moore said he heard two gunshots, KRDO reported.
The shooting led to protest marches and a candlelight vigil in the small southeastern Colorado town.
A preliminary hearing scheduled last month was delayed after Asbhy's lawyers asked for more time to review evidence.
The Denver Posts says that Ashby never identified himself as a police officer and had no reason to believe Jack Jacquez, the man he killed, was committing any crime before the shooting, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found.
Further, Investigators say Ashby had already formulated in his mind that he was going to shoot (Jacquez) prior to drawing his weapon.
The CBI said Ashby lied about circumstances that led up to and followed the shooting, finding that many of his statements contradicted physical evidence and other witness accounts.
Specifically, investigators found Ashby's version of the shooting differed from that of a man who was riding along with the then-cop during his 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. shift.
Ashby served in the Navy as a mechanic in his 20s before moving back to southern Colorado, where he worked in loss prevention at a Kmart in Pueblo for one month in the fall of 2007. He was fired from that job because of "claims made against me by a fellow employee," he said in a police job application. From there he worked as a clerk at a Loaf 'N Jug.
In 2009, he was hired as a Walsenburg police officer. The Post obtained Ashby's 96-page internal affairs and disciplinary records file from his roughly five-year employment there. The file includes allegations that he used profane and derogatory language on the job and one alleged instance of sexual harassment against a dispatcher.
The file also documents how a handcuffed suspect in Ashby's custody escaped and was spotted running through town. Ashby later was forced to pay for the handcuffs, which the suspect removed using bolt cutters.
In June 2014, five months before he shot and killed Jacquez, Ashby joined the nine-person Rocky Ford police force.
Records show he already had been named as part of three internal investigations, including allegations of excessive force in early October.
Officer Ashby
Looks like he missed out on his career calling as a motorcycle gang member. Wonder what the rest of the tattoo looks like. Sort of looks like the top of a skull right above the collar.
A plug ugly. A real bruiser, as they would say back in the day. This one looks like he could be a nightclub bouncer on some skanky beach strip.
Now they are hiring druggy Hardly Ableson types as cops?
Most LE agencies put their goons and bad asses on the night shift.
wonder what the rest of that ratty lookin tat looks like
where are the jackboot lickers and badge worshipers usually by this time one or more are here. Alibing, defending, and name calling to beat the band.
Grow up,sport,grow up.
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I lived there for five years before moving away in 1960 or 1961. I was in the seventh grade when we moved. Rocky Ford was a tiny place then, and still was when I dropped in for a visit in 2010. Not much had changed in the intervening fifty years.
I lived there from 70 - 80. The population was 5000 or so. It’s down to about 4000 now. I was there in 2011 for my 30th reunion. It’s a bit dustier than I remember, but mostly the same.
If I remember much about living on the VA grounds at Ft Lyon and going to elementary school in Las Animas, it was the dust everywhere.
And the thrill of watching a dust storm rolling in. Those thing could be scary, like biblical stuff, wall of brown advancing on you.
I find it a very odd coincidence (and I don’t believe in coincidences) that several of the complaintants against him in this download have the same surname as the murdered man. Revenge??????
Weren’t rhe complaints were prior to the shooting? Who do you think is seeking revenge?
A judge ruled Thursday that there is probable cause for Rocky Ford Police Officer...
Rocky Ford is a small place, and most of these small towns don’t have the budget to hire good police officers as in this case. They should contract with the county or state for law enforcement.
Otero County isn't in much better shape than the towns within its borders. The state has turned leftist-extremist since I moved away.
I think 2nd degree murder is overloading the charging and if he gets off, there is nothing else to charge him with.
I would go with 2nd degree manslaughter myself but, I’m not an attorney.
I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express.
However, 2nd degree manslaughter would ensure that he was convicted of an error in judgement, in the execution of his duties.
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