{"id":16799,"date":"2025-08-21T22:28:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T22:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-man-and-woman-appear-in-cortez-court-after-slaying-in-park-two-others-injured\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:01:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:01:22","slug":"update-man-and-woman-appear-in-cortez-court-after-slaying-in-park-two-others-injured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-man-and-woman-appear-in-cortez-court-after-slaying-in-park-two-others-injured\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Man and woman appear in Cortez court after slaying in park; two others injured"},"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

Two suspects appeared in court Thursday after the death of a man at Veterans Park, which Cortez police are investigating as a homicide.<\/p>\n

Officers responded to a welfare check at the park around 8 p.m. Wednesday after receiving reports of an unresponsive male. The man was found with \u201cobvious blunt force trauma\u201d and pronounced dead at the scene despite lifesaving efforts, according to the Cortez Police Department. His identity has not been released.<\/p>\n

Two other men, identified in court as Bilbert Tsosie and Anthony Hill, were found nearby with similar injuries and taken to Southwest Memorial Hospital. Assistant District Attorney Justin Pierce told the court Thursday that one of them might not survive.<\/p>\n

Police arrested Robert Salt and Nykhona Holiday at the scene on suspicion of first-degree murder and first-degree assault. Both appeared via Webex in the U.S. 22nd Judicial District Court before Judge William Furse.<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation are assisting in the investigation.<\/p>\n

During the hearing, Salt\u2019s temporary attorney, Ryan Day, waived advisement and requested to address bail after a request was made for Salt to go first to allow Holiday\u2019s mother time to arrive.<\/p>\n

Sammy Antez Jr., the deceased victim\u2019s brother, addressed the court before arguments began.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a little brother, we don\u2019t want this guy to get out and hurt another\u2019s loved one,\u201d Antez said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have words for what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pierce requested a $3 million cash-only bond, citing the alleged violence and \u201cextreme indifference\u201d shown by Salt. He said Holiday was found with blood on her pants and shoes, and Salt was discovered \u201ccovered in blood\u201d and passed out, apparently because of intoxication.<\/p>\n

Holiday allegedly told police that Salt repeatedly kicked the men in the head and told her to \u201cprove she was with him\u201d by kicking them as well. Pierce said the suspects \u201clacked remorse to such a degree\u201d that they shoplifted alcohol from City Market after the alleged attacks and continued drinking.<\/p>\n

Pierce also noted Salt had been arrested four times in the past 30 days, with prior convictions including DUI, vehicle theft, child abuse, domestic violence and assault. Salt is on parole for a felony menacing conviction from 2021.<\/p>\n

Day argued that Salt is presumed innocent and said there was insufficient proof to justify a $3 million bond. He cited statistics indicating that pretrial detention can lead to worse outcomes for defendants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are dealing with is allegations,\u201d Day said. \u201cThe court must set a reasonable bond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furse described the alleged crimes as \u201cegregious and violent\u201d and imposed conditions including no contact with the victims or their families, no visits to Veterans Park, and no possession of weapons, drugs, marijuana or alcohol. Citing Salt\u2019s history of failing to appear in court, Furse set bond at $3 million cash only. Salt is scheduled to appear for filing of charges on Friday, Sept. 5, at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n

Holiday, 20, appeared next. Her attorney, Stephen Singer, waived advisement. Pierce reiterated the severity of the assault and requested a $1 million cash surety bond with the same conditions imposed on Salt.<\/p>\n

Singer said Holiday made \u201cmore direct admissions\u201d to police and cooperated fully. He argued there was no probable cause for the charges, saying Holiday told him she was \u201cthreatened\u201d and \u201ccoerced\u201d into participating. He said Salt had previously threatened her life and forced her to switch shoes during the assaults.<\/p>\n

Singer added that Holiday was not a flight risk.<\/p>\n

Furse acknowledged Holiday\u2019s less extensive criminal history but said her recent activity had become \u201calarmingly escalatory,\u201d citing DUI and assault-type cases. He imposed the same bond conditions as Salt and set Holiday\u2019s bond at $1 million cash surety.<\/p>\n

Her filing of charges is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 5, at 11:30 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

reportedly died from blunt-force trauma; another man might not survive<\/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":[21,28,60,29,51,76],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-police","tag-u-s-22nd-judicial-district"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16799","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=16799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20398,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16799\/revisions\/20398"}],"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=16799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16799"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}