{"id":129085,"date":"2026-05-14T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trial-of-cortez-man-accused-in-veterans-park-murder-set-for-this-fall\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T20:00:00","slug":"trial-of-cortez-man-accused-in-veterans-park-murder-set-for-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trial-of-cortez-man-accused-in-veterans-park-murder-set-for-this-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Trial of Cortez man accused in Veterans Park murder set for this fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Robert
Robert Salt and Nykhona Holiday.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A Cortez man accused of murder in incidents taking place at Veterans Park last August is scheduled to go to trial in early September.<\/p>\n

Robert Salt is scheduled for a trial Sept. 8 starting with jury selection and lasting three weeks. Wednesday\u2019s hearing in the Montezuma County Combined Courts focused on scheduling conflicts among attorneys, speedy trial concerns and the defense\u2019s request to separate Salt\u2019s case from the case against Nykhona Holiday.<\/p>\n

Salt appeared in court and pleaded not guilty. The accusations against him involve multiple counts, including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and first- and second-degree assault, along with a habitual criminal count.<\/p>\n

Salt remains in the Montezuma County Jail as he awaits trial.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege Salt and Holiday are responsible for brutal assaults against three men last August, two of whom have died. Those men include Curtis Benally, 40, who died from blunt-force trauma soon after he was assaulted where police believe the incidents occurred Aug. 20, and Anthony Hill, 56, was found critically wounded at the park that day and died March 15, according to medical examiner records in Maricopa County, Arizona.<\/p>\n

The allegations describe significant violence in the Cortez public park near the Welcome Center, where police later testified to extreme amounts of blood. The state alleges Salt and Holiday were heavily intoxicated while multiple witnesses allegedly fled, fearing for their lives. Holiday later told police in an interview she witnessed Salt as drunk and agitated, and his behavior allegedly escalated in a series of violent actions.<\/p>\n

A third man, Bilbert Tsosie, 61, was found unconscious by police with serious face wounds, although he remains alive.<\/p>\n

In court Wednesday, the prosecution confirmed they intend to try Salt and Holiday separately. Holiday appeared in court last week and entered a plea of not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree assault. Both the District Attorney\u2019s Office and her attorney, Stephen Singer, characterized having serious discussion on reaching a final settlement in her case. If she goes to trial, both parties agreed it could likely take two weeks.<\/p>\n

Matters revolve around scheduling three-week trial<\/div>\n

A major part of the hearing revolved around scheduling the trial. Prosecutor John Goodlander pushed for an earlier September setting, arguing the state did not want to risk running too closely to the Nov. 13 speedy trial deadline.<\/p>\n

Public defender Benjamin Krumpelman objected to the September dates, provided he would be absent on some of the proposed dates due to a trial he has in La Plata County. While days in October were suggested, Oct. 7-21 are set dates for another significant trial concerning Rachel Leonard, a Cortez woman accused of killing her 5-year-old daughter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court recognizes the inherent difficulties that would come in maintaining two trials in this courthouse of this caliber. Both trials that are contemplated in October are class-one felonies,\u201d District Court Judge William Furse said.<\/p>\n

Krumpelman pushed for the October dates, arguing Salt has a right to effective counsel from both himself and public defender Scott Van Zandt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can frame this: We do have competing trials,\u201d Krumpelman said. \u201cThe prosecution does have a serious case to handle. Likewise, Mr. Salt has this very serious matter to handle at the same time. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s simply logistical issues in the courthouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furse said there are complications handling multiple felony trials within one courthouse simultaneously, due to managing limited space for juries and staffing shortages among deputies to cover court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I may, noting the charges here and your scheduling conflict elsewhere. Are those immovable or are they of a similar caliber case that might get coverage there?\u201d Furse said.<\/p>\n

Krumpelman responded that it wasn\u2019t a trial of the same magnitude. In the end, the judge noted he wished to accommodate both parties but set the trial for Sept. 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, the court laments the conflicts, but having a three-week trial is likely always going to have a conflict in someone\u2019s schedule,\u201d Furse said.<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

enters not guilty plea in Wednesday hearing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[133,168,28,60,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-129085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129085"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=129085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}