{"id":27162,"date":"2024-06-14T18:31:43","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T18:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kaylee-sanders-pleads-guilty-in-two-cortez-area-murders-in-2023\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:52:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:52:23","slug":"kaylee-sanders-pleads-guilty-in-two-cortez-area-murders-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kaylee-sanders-pleads-guilty-in-two-cortez-area-murders-in-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaylee Sanders pleads guilty in two Cortez-area murders in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kaylee
Kaylee Sanders<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Kaylee Sanders, who has been charged with killing a man and her brother, assaulting police officers and kidnapping a woman, pleaded guilty Friday to two charges of second-degree murder and one charge of second-degree assault.<\/p>\n

As reported in The Journal<\/em><\/a>, on July 28, dispatchers received a call from Sanders\u2019 grandmother, who reported that Sanders shot her brother, Morgan Salgado, in Cortez. She then reportedly pointed her handgun at officers and shot it into the air before she was arrested blocks from the scene.<\/p>\n

Sanders also was arrested for the murder of Lewis Wall the night before, on July 27. As previously reported, Tianna Gallegos, who reported the shooting to police, said that both she and Sanders had gone to Wall\u2019s house the previous day to cut firewood.<\/p>\n

After Wall was shot, Gallegos drove Sanders to Cortez. Gallegos reportedly was unable to get away from Sanders because she kept the firearm in her lap, according to Detective Lt. John Hargraves of the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office, who testified during Sanders\u2019 preliminary hearing<\/a> in October.<\/p>\n

Chief Judge Todd Plewe of the 22nd Judicial District, who presided over the case, set Sanders\u2019 sentencing date for Sept. 20, after requesting that a presentencing investigation report be conducted.<\/p>\n

The death of Morgan Salgado<\/div>\n

On July 28, Sanders entered her grandmother\u2019s home, at 516 S. Madison Street. Her grandmother, Audrey Collom, informed Sanders that Salgado was at the house prior to Sanders\u2019 arrival. She reportedly tried to avoid Salgado when she could, but ultimately entered the house that night.<\/p>\n

Sanders was upset that Salgado had drunk some of her beer. She could be heard in the background of Collom\u2019s 911 call, stating \u201cI needed your guys\u2019 help to get that narcissistic, abusive (expletive) away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police found Salgado deceased on the couch in the living room, with a gunshot wound to the front of his head.<\/p>\n

Lewis Wall\u2019s death<\/div>\n

On July 28, Hargraves responded to the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office, where Gallegos reported a shooting that occurred the day prior. She reported that after Sanders chopped firewood at or near Wall\u2019s home, she walked outside with a backpack and a gun, demanding that Gallegos help her find Wall\u2019s truck keys. She reportedly told her \u201cnot to panic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gallegos reportedly observed Wall semi-upright against the couch grunting. Sanders, who kept the gun on her lap, made Gallegos drive, where they eventually ended up at Handy Mart at 806 S. Broadway after leaving the truck at Mesa Elementary.<\/p>\n

Wall was found dead in his home when a welfare check was conducted. He reportedly had \u201chis hands in places they should not have been,\u201d according to Sanders\u2019 friend Celeste Murdock, who spoke with Hargraves shortly after Salgado\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

A fight in jail<\/div>\n

On March 6 of this year, Sanders and another inmate at the Montezuma County Detention Center, Abigayle Gray, were seen on video footage beating up a third inmate, Sabrina Phillips, according to a police report written by Deputy Andrew Daulton.<\/p>\n

The report lists Sanders and Gray as suspects, Phillips as the victim, and five jail deputies as being involved in witnessing or breaking up the fight. Daulton reviewed video footage taken in the jail\u2019s recreational yard, where he observed the fight take place.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to statements from jail staff, (Phillips) was \u2018running her mouth\u2019 before (Sanders) and (Gray) assaulted her,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n

Pictures taken by jail staff of Phillips\u2019 injuries indicated scratches and bruising to her face. Both suspects were served summons for third-degree assault. Sanders is scheduled for arraignment in court on June 18 at 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

This story will be updated as more details come forward.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one count of second-degree assault<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27102,"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-27162","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\/27162","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=27162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79971,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27162\/revisions\/79971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27162"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=27162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}