AURORA | A man charged with murder in connection with a liquor store robbery last spring that left a customer dead and a suspect wounded is due in court Tuesday.
Anthony Gillespie, 24, was arrested in August in connection with the April 9 robbery at Sixth Avenue Liquors that left Benigno Morales-Ramirez, 24, dead.
Gillespie is set to appear in Arapahoe County District Court on Tuesday for an arraigment hearing, according to court records. The hearing, at which Gillespie is expected to enter a plea, was previously scheduled for Jan. 19 but was pushed back to Feb. 1.
In the days after Morales-Ramirez’s death, police arrested another man, Elon Raynell Wynn Robinson, 21, in connection with the crime. Robinson was shot during the robbery, according to police records.
According to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records, police in Denver arrested Gillespie on Aug. 24 after Aurora police filed charges against him including first-degree felony murder and aggravated robbery.
He has been held without bond at the Arapahoe County Jail since.
According to arrest affidavit filed against Robinson, Robinson was shot in the arm and hip during the robber and later arrested at an area hospital.
Morales-Ramirez appeared to be an innocent bystander who had gone to the store that night to buy beer, the affidavit said.
According to the affidavit, Robinson and two other men donned hooded sweatshirts around 11 p.m. and stormed into the liquor store near East Sixth Avenue and Havana Street.
The store clerk had gone to the back of the store to get beer for Morales-Ramirez that wasn’t on the shelf.
While the clerk was in the back, one of the three men —who Robinson later identified as Gillespie — went behind the counter and began taking money from the register.
A security camera video shows the man behind the counter start shooting, striking Robinson and Morales-Ramirez.
Morales-Ramirez was struck in the head and pronounced dead at an area hospital.
Robinson, meanwhile, dropped a bag containing liquor bottles from inside the store and fled in a nearby SUV.
The SUV dropped Robinson off at a local hospital, where hospital personnel called police to report that a young man had recently arrived with a gunshot wound.
Police interviewed Robinson at the hospital and he told them he was shot in a drive-by and got a ride to the hospital from a stranger.
Robinson later changed his story and told police he went to the liquor store with two friends but did not know they planned to rob it.
Police later went to Gillespie’s home in northeast Denver and found the SUV parked nearby with blood on the passenger side door and the passenger’s seat.
Investigators interviewed Gillespie that day but he said he didn’t know how the SUV ended up in front of his house.
He told investigators that the night of the shooting, he had gone to an Aurora bar and later to a hotel before returning home.
It wasn’t clear from the affidavit why police didn’t arrest Gillespie after the interview.
Police also identified a third suspect in the case, according to the affidavit, but were unable to locate him.
According to state records, the third suspect has not been charged or arrested in connection with the case.
Like Gillespie, Robinson remains held without bond at the Arapahoe County Jail. He is set to go on trial May 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment