Brief by Central Staff
Crime – August 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
A murder that may have happened in Denver County will be prosecuted in Park County, even though the Park undersheriff “would have liked to have seen them [Denver] handle it,” since “they have more resources.”
On June 2, Robert Pastore drove into the Bailey substation with the body of Raymond Twiggs in the back of his van. He told deputies he had strangled Twiggs, his drug dealer, with a wire in Denver. He then drove to Guanella Pass and around the mountains for five days before turning himself in.
Patrick Murphy, a Salida-based public defender, represents Pastore. He told the Fairplay Flume that state law “allows for a murder case to be filed where the murder occurred or where the body was discovered,” so it’s legal to try him in Park County for a crime he says happened near Interstate 70 and Quebec Street in Denver.
But it would be more practical to try him in Denver, where an investigation of Pastore’s actions would be focused. And to that, Park County Undersheriff Monte Gore agreed, noting that the county’s investigative costs will be high, and “I’d like to see our resources used for Park County crimes.”
Sean Paris, deputy DA in Fairplay, pointed out that Twiggs’s body, the physical evidence in the van, and the campsite at Guanella Pass were all in Park County. The only evidence to date of a crime in Denver is Pastore’s statement, and he could be lying about that.
Molly Chilson, 12th-district DA, said she met with Denver DA Mitch Morrissey, and he agreed that the case should be prosecuted and tried in Park County, since that’s where the evidence was.
