{"id":33409,"date":"2023-06-15T18:21:57","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T00:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-affidavit-gives-details-in-shooting-near-bradfield-bridge-north-of-cortez\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:09:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:09:54","slug":"update-affidavit-gives-details-in-shooting-near-bradfield-bridge-north-of-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-affidavit-gives-details-in-shooting-near-bradfield-bridge-north-of-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Affidavit gives details in shooting near Bradfield Bridge north of Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=84e18f33-f38f-5549-bd6a-57e26d2d59d4&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"504\" height=\"349\" alt=\"The Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comment on use of roads and trails in Dolores, San Miguel and Montrose counties. (Courtesy Bureau of Land Management)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">The Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comment on use of roads and trails in Dolores, San Miguel and Montrose counties. (Courtesy Bureau of Land Management)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>The 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office announced Wednesday that a Montezuma County woman likely will face a charge of first-degree murder in the shooting death of her husband, who was found \u201calive and bleeding\u201d near a recreation area north of Cortez on May 2.<\/p>\n<p>Joyce Garcia, 52, was investigated after reporting that her husband, 57-year-old Alfredo Garcia, was missing May 2.<\/p>\n<p>Deputies from the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office responded to Joyce Garcia\u2019s call, according to an affidavit. Law enforcement requested GPS information for her husband\u2019s phone because of his medical conditions related to West Nile virus he contracted in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Alfredo Garcia was found \u201calive and bleeding\u201d near Bradfield Bridge on Forest Service Road 521 in Dolores County, according to a news release from the District Attorney\u2019s office. He was transported to Mercy Regional Medical Center by helicopter.<\/p>\n<p>At the hospital, it was determined that he had two gunshot wounds to his head. He was flown to Saint Anthony\u2019s Hospital in Lakewood, Colorado. He died from his wounds several days later, the affidavit stated.<\/p>\n<p>At the couple\u2019s residence, a black Dodge Journey was found with a broken window, damage to the front fender, and \u201cdust inside the vehicle on all seats but the driver\u2019s seat,\u201d the affidavit said.<\/p>\n<p>Detective John Haynes of the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office talked to Joyce Garcia, who said that she had consumed six to eight beers that evening before passing out while watching movies with her husband. When she woke up, she couldn\u2019t find her husband, so she called 911.<\/p>\n<p>A tire tread similar to the tread of the Dodge Journey was found near Forest Service Road 521, close to where Garcia was found.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia told detectives that there were no firearms in the residence. Her son, Conor Donohue, informed detectives that the couple owned a .357 revolver, and that his mother had shot one of their dogs two weeks prior at the location her husband was found bleeding, the affidavit stated.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"naviga-map\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?q=37.6575646%2C-108.7379323&amp;z=15&amp;output=embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Map\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>A deceased dog was found near Alfred Garcia on Forest Service Road 521. When asked about the dog, Joyce Garcia first told detectives that she slit the dog\u2019s throat with a knife. In a later interview with Colorado Bureau of Investigation, she admitted to owning the gun and using it to shoot the dog, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n<p>During this interview, Garcia told detectives that she did not know what happened to her husband, and doesn\u2019t remember if she looked for the car in the driveway while trying to find her husband at the residence. She also couldn\u2019t remember if she called her husband during this time.<\/p>\n<p>On May 22, Donohue contacted authorities to report that his mother admitted to shooting her husband. She reportedly told her son that her husband \u201chad asked her to because of his health condition,\u201d the affidavit reported. Garcia left the residence while her son was reporting her to authorities.<\/p>\n<p>On May 23, Garcia returned to the residence. Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s officers \u201cbegan watching,\u201d and Donohue came out of the residence shortly after. He told police that his mother \u201cpotentially made an attempt on her life,\u201d and she told him \u201cI would rather die than go to prison,\u201d the affidavit stated.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia was found with lacerations to her wrist, for which she received medical treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Present for the arrest, Sheriff Steve Nowlin confirmed that the couple resided north of Cortez, within Montezuma County.<\/p>\n<p>The incident was investigated by the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office and CBI, with assistance from the Dolores County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Cortez Police Department.<\/p>\n<p>District Attorney Christian Hatfield is expected to file the first-degree murder charges later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>faces murder charge in husband\u2019s slaying; dog also killed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33410,"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-33409","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\/33409","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=33409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82187,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33409\/revisions\/82187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33409"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}