{"id":23897,"date":"2025-01-24T22:42:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T05:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/grand-junction-man-who-stabbed-and-killed-a-person-in-cortez-is-set-free\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:44:16","slug":"grand-junction-man-who-stabbed-and-killed-a-person-in-cortez-is-set-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/grand-junction-man-who-stabbed-and-killed-a-person-in-cortez-is-set-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Junction man who stabbed and killed a person in Cortez is set free"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma
Montezuma County Combined Courts are holding hearings by phone or computers only until the pandemic subsides.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A man held on charges of second-degree murder at the Montezuma County Detention Center since May 2023 was released Friday afternoon after District Attorney Jeremy Reed filed a motion to dismiss the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife these days is confusing,\u201d said Travis Grauberger, the victim\u2019s younger brother. \u201cI\u2019m not surprised when something like this comes along and is overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blake Welling, 62, of Grand Junction, stabbed David Grauberger, 38, in an act of what he said was self-defense during an altercation near the Speedway in Cortez, at Main and Cactus streets on May 25, 2023.<\/p>\n

Grauberger later died at the hospital from a severed ventricle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t you go ahead and tell me why we\u2019re at this point,\u201d said Chief Judge Todd Plewe. \u201cWe\u2019re already set for trial and have litigated the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly I can appreciate the court\u2019s frustration,\u201d Reed started.<\/p>\n

Reed explained that he was involved in the case at its inception, and \u201cwas then out of the DA\u2019s office in the intervening year, so I had no knowledge or input about \u2026 what was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Jan. 14, when Reed reentered the 22nd Judicial District, he did \u201can independent and new review of the evidence\u201d and concluded that there\u2019s a \u201cvalid self-defense claim that the people would not be able to overcome in trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only appropriate action I see is for me to move to dismiss,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n

Plewe asked whether he had consulted with the victim\u2019s family regarding the dismissal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did, your honor,\u201d said Reed. \u201cWhile I don\u2019t believe they\u2019re in agreement with the dismissal, I was able to relay my reasoning to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Travis, the victim\u2019s brother, said he understands Reed\u2019s position, and how \u201chis hands are tied.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut someone\u2019s life was still taken, someone was still murdered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

David had struggled with his mental health his whole life, Travis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that shouldn\u2019t determine whether his life was any less important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plewe and Reed then discussed the question of dismissing with or without prejudice.<\/p>\n

Closing a case with <\/em>prejudice means the court closes a case permanently, whereas closing a case without prejudice leaves the possibility of it being reopened.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the fact that this case has already been through a preliminary hearing and that we are scheduled for a jury trial to begin in less than two weeks\u2019 time, a dismissal with prejudice is only appropriate,\u201d Plewe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe case is sealed, and Mr. Welling you are free to go so long as you don\u2019t have any other holds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018There\u2019s a valid self-defense claim,\u2019 DA says <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23897","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=23897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78310,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23897\/revisions\/78310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23897"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}