Man arrested in Colorado triple-shooting after crash and intensive search
DENVER (AP) — A man arrested in connection to a fatal shooting in southern Colorado allegedly killed a man by shooting him in the head, and wounded two others, according to court documents.
Henry Corral, 44, was taken into custody following an intensive search that authorities said involved him fleeing from a vehicle crash and an attempted carjacking.
Officers found the three victims after responding to a report of shots fired at The Sunset Inn in Alamosa at about 2 a.m. Sunday. The city of about 10,000 people is roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the New Mexico border.
According to an arrest affidavit for Corral released Wednesday, Corral’s wife had been spending time with Manuel Flores, a childhood friend who was recently released from prison and visiting from the Denver area. Flores was wounded in the shooting as well as his friend Gabriel Pina, the affidavit said. The man who was killed, Aurelio Pina, was identified as Gabriel Pina’s father.
The affidavit did not say why Corral is alleged to have shot the three men. According to the document, Corral’s wife said the couple had been discussing separating or divorcing.
Corral is being represented by James Waldo, an attorney from the public defender’s office, which does not comment on its cases to the media.
Corral, who was taken to the hospital after the crash, appeared in court on Wednesday for the first time since his arrest. Judge Jason Kelly ordered that he continue to be held in jail unless he is able to pay a $5 million cash bond, setting the amount so high because of the allegations against him and his criminal history.
District Attorney Anne Kelly described the shootings as an execution and attempted executions. She told the judge that Corral has twice before been charged with first-degree murder, in 2000 and 2016, when he plead guilty to less serious charges in both cases. After spending time in prison for the 2016 case, when Corral was released, he tried to kill his girlfriend by strangling her, she said.
Over the weekend, Corral fled so fast in a stolen car in a rural area that he flew over two irrigation ditches and then landed the car in a field, Kelly said. Authorities think he then set the car on fire in an attempt to get rid of evidence of the shooting, which is believed to be a weapon and a cellphone, she said.