{"id":13564,"date":"2026-02-09T02:07:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/judge-probable-cause-on-seven-charges-in-veterans-park-killing\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:38:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:38:52","slug":"judge-probable-cause-on-seven-charges-in-veterans-park-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/judge-probable-cause-on-seven-charges-in-veterans-park-killing\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge: Probable cause on seven charges in Veterans Park killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Robert
Robert Salt (left) and Nikhona Holiday (right) are suspects in the murder of a man in Veterans Park on Wednesday night. Two other victims are in the hospital.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A preliminary hearing in the Veterans Park homicide case lasted most of Friday as three Cortez police officers took the stand and described a gruesome, bloody scene from last August, when they discovered three men badly beaten in the public park.<\/p>\n

One later died from his injuries.<\/p>\n

Much of Robert Salt\u2019s hearing focused on witness testimony and legal arguments from attorneys. The purpose of the early\u2011stage hearing was to determine whether the district attorney\u2019s office had sufficient probable cause to move the case to trial. Different legal standards guide a preliminary hearing compared with a trial.<\/p>\n

Salt faces nine counts, including allegations of first\u2011degree murder, two counts of first\u2011degree assault, second\u2011degree murder and other substantive charges.<\/p>\n

After deliberation, District Court Judge William Furse delivered a judgment finding enough evidence for charges with heightened legal standards \u2013 terms like \u201cuniversal malice\u201d and \u201cextreme indifference\u201d \u2013 used to describe conduct so reckless and brutal that it shows extreme indifference to the value of human life and creates a grave risk of death.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Aug. 20, Mr. Salt \u2013 for reasons unknown to the court \u2013 he offered to Miss Holiday he would do the assaults,\u201d Furse said. The judge pointed to testimony about \u201cstomping and standing on someone\u2019s head,\u201d calling that sufficient evidence to allege aggravated malice.<\/p>\n

The prosecution\u2019s theory accuses Salt of committing a series of escalating assaults at Veterans Park that left Curtis Benally dead and two others severely injured. The state believes his 20\u2011year\u2011old co\u2011defendant, Nykhona Holiday, was present and involved throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors pointed to Holiday\u2019s statements to police alleging Salt\u2019s conduct, witness accounts that he told her, \u201cthis is what we do,\u201d and video showing the pair together before and after the assaults, arguing the pattern supported the charges.<\/p>\n

After ruling, the judge ordered the case to move to arraignment in six weeks.<\/p>\n

Families of the victims were present Friday for a case involving allegations of significant violence, two highly intoxicated individuals and park witnesses who allegedly fled out of fear.<\/p>\n

The prosecution presented testimony from responding officers to outline the events of the day, while Salt\u2019s defense argued the evidence did not satisfy the legal standards for malice and extreme indifference.<\/p>\n

Three officers take the stand<\/div>\n

Two Cortez Police Department patrol officers and a detective testified about what they encountered Aug. 20, 2025, near the Cortez Welcome Center at Veterans Park, where Benally, 40, was later pronounced dead and two other men, 61\u2011year\u2011old Bilbert Tsosie and 56\u2011year\u2011old Anthony Hill, were seriously injured.<\/p>\n

Officer Jerry Sam, who has worked for the department for more than 17 years, said he was dispatched to a welfare check and found Tsosie lying on his back with \u201cquite a bit of blood\u201d and \u201csignificant injuries to the face.\u201d Tsosie was unconscious and transported by ambulance.<\/p>\n

Sam testified that after Tsosie was loaded into the ambulance, he and another officer identified Benally and Hill, both of whom had \u201cquite a bit of injury.\u201d He said officers began taping off the area as a crime scene and searching for evidence. Sam described \u201csignificant amounts of blood\u201d at the park.<\/p>\n

Sam also testified that Holiday approached officers near where Benally lay, saying she needed to look for her phone. He noticed blood on Holiday\u2019s shoes and said it appeared dried.<\/p>\n

Detective Charles Osborn testified Holiday told him Salt said he would punch the \u201cCheii\u201d (pronounced \u201cChay\u201d), a Navajo word for grandfather, and began assaulting people. Osborn said Holiday told him \u201cRobert wanted to punch Curtis because he was a snitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osborn testified that when he told Holiday one of the men had died, she appeared surprised and said, \u201cRobert gets angry, aggressive and a bully when he drinks,\u201d and told him she wanted to tell him everything from the start. Osborn said Holiday walked him through the events and drew a diagram of the park.<\/p>\n

The coroner ruled Benally\u2019s cause of death was blunt\u2011force trauma to the head and determined a homicide.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors cite plea offer; defense challenges \u2018universal malice\u2019<\/div>\n

Assistant District Attorney Justin Pierce told the court the state had offered Salt a plea to second\u2011degree murder for 45 years in prison, which Salt and his attorneys did not accept.<\/p>\n

Public defender Benjamin Krumpelman argued the state did not establish probable cause for universal malice, saying other people in the park were not hurt. He said universal malice is typically argued in cases where, for example, a gunman fires into a crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lack those facts that he was putting the general public in danger,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Public defender Scott Van Zandt argued Salt\u2019s intoxication meant deliberation was not possible, saying his behavior showed the opposite of forethought.<\/p>\n

\u201cTestimony does not dispute Mr. Salt was incredibly intoxicated, all the people there were heavily intoxicated,\u201d Van Zandt said. \u201cHe walked into the grocery store with the same clothes and shoes he allegedly wore to murder someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge delivers preliminary-hearing ruling<\/div>\n

Furse returned to the bench at about 3:15 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court has had the opportunity to gather its thoughts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said hearsay is admissible in a preliminary hearing and may form the bulk of the evidence. The judge added the rules do not require the prosecution to present all its witnesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter considering the evidence \u2026 and the court\u2019s obligation, the prosecution has demonstrated counts one through seven, and we will move forward with the arraignment,\u201d Furse said.<\/p>\n

Salt\u2019s arraignment is scheduled for March 19 at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n

Holiday, also charged with murder and assault, waived her right to a preliminary hearing. Her arraignment is scheduled for March 12 at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n

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

Officers describe scene; court finds probable cause for \u2018universal malice\u2019 allegation<\/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":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13564","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=13564"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19041,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13564\/revisions\/19041"}],"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=13564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13564"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}