Suspect Michael Phillip Ferraro turned himself in the day after the attack on Jan. 3. He was arrested and charged with suspicion of second-degree assault, a class-4 felony, and obstruction of telephone services, a misdemeanor, for allegedly attacking Travis Dalenberg in the living room of their rental house and then taking Dalenberg\u2019s phone. Ferraro was released on bail the same day.<\/p>\n
The pair had been friends at Durango High School where they both graduated in 2004, but had not spent much time together until becoming roommates in June, Dalenberg said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hadn\u2019t seen him in so long, or often, just one-on-one since our mid-20s or so and I just assumed living with an old friend wouldn\u2019t be such a bad thing,\u201d Dalenberg said when reached Monday by The Durango Herald<\/em>. \u201cAnd I thought I would help him out because it\u2019s hard to find good places to live.\u201d<\/p>\n But almost immediately it was a \u201cbad living situation\u201d with Ferraro becoming \u201cvery aggressive\u201d about how he expected things to be around the house, Dalenberg said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was very disrespectful and arrogant and he\u2019d be damned if I got to have things my way,\u201d Dalenberg said. \u201cAnd so what ended up happening is we just coexisted and very rarely spoke. He just expected me to never use the common areas. He considered it his house and I could just sit in my room.\u201d<\/p>\n Ferraro declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you for the opportunity to tell a little bit of my side, but while my case in ongoing, I don\u2019t think I can really make any comment on it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The confrontation that led to the attack occurred about 1 p.m. when Ferraro returned from skiing, according to an arrest affidavit.<\/p>\n Dalenberg said he was sitting in the living room \u201cfor a change\u201d watching television on his phone and listening through a peripheral speaker when Ferraro came home, made lunch, then sat down in the living room and turned on his big screen television, which was above Dalenberg\u2019s head.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I turned mine up,\u201d Dalenberg said. \u201cAnd then he turned his up.\u201d<\/p>\n Dalenberg left the room to change laundry loads and then returned to the living room and turned the volume on his speaker all the way up, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s when he got up and went into the back to a mud room where we both keep stuff,\u201d Dalenberg said. \u201cAnd when I turned and looked up again he had a French-style rolling pin in his hand and (was already swinging), and if I wouldn\u2019t have blocked my face he would have gotten me straight in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n Dalenberg said he blocked the first blows with his left arm but then shock kicked in and the next thing he knew he was on the floor with Ferraro raining blows down on him.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how many hits it was but I took a bunch of hits,\u201d Dalenberg said. He later told police he estimated that Ferraro hit him 25 to 30 times before it was all over.<\/p>\n \u201cI grabbed a music stand and pushed that at him but he was able to push it down pretty easily and then I was back on the floor taking some more hits until I grabbed a stool and tried to do the same thing, but none of it really worked,\u201d Dalenberg said. \u201cAnd I just remember screaming \u2018stop!\u2019 until he stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n Dalenberg said he was \u201cpretty dazed,\u201d and though he has never experienced being knocked unconscious, thought after one particular blow that he \u201cwas going to go under.\u201d<\/p>\n It was about then that Dalenberg noticed he was bleeding. He went into his room and returned to the living room to grab his phone, but said Ferraro took it and stashed it somewhere, before blocking the front door with the rolling pin still in hand.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when he started to yell at me for not doing enough around the house,\u201d Dalenberg said. \u201cBasically just roommate stuff. He didn\u2019t have anything to complain about. He just had to have things his way. So I grabbed a paring knife and I was holding it and we were standing about 10 feet apart. And my only answer to him was \u2018so you just assault me, that\u2019s what you\u2019re doing?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The two squared off for a minute and then Dalenberg said Ferraro walked into his bedroom, which was next to the front door, so Dalenberg grabbed his car keys and drove first to get gas, where he noticed he was covered in blood, and then on to the police station. But when he arrived the station lobby was closed.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I work at Durango Coffee Co. as a cook so I just walked to there,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it was a snowy day, I was super freezing and wet and stuff, in my pajama pants and slippers.\u201d<\/p>\n His boss snapped some photos and then took Dalenberg to Urgent Care on north Main Avenue and called police.<\/p>\n When police arrived, Dalenberg had dried blood on his neck and shirt, redness and swelling on his forearms and a 5-inch gash that was still bloody on the back of his head, according to the police report. Police then tried in vain to locate Ferraro at work and at home. An officer found blood in the home but not the rolling pin.<\/p>\n The officer then returned to Urgent Care to get Ferraro\u2019s phone number from Dalenberg.<\/p>\n The officer called Ferraro, who told him he became angry when he got home from skiing and noticed that Dalenberg had not done any chores around the house. Then the television volume incident occurred. Ferraro told the officer that was when he retrieved the rolling pin and \u201chit him (Dalenberg) with the rolling pin\u201d three or four times. Ferraro agreed to turn himself in the next day.<\/p>\n Ferraro is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 19.<\/p>\n Dalenberg has a protection order against Ferraro and has changed the locks on the house. The incident has left Dalenberg with bruises and welts on his arm as well as staples to close two gashes in his head.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it (meant) more than I wanted to admit as far as the aftermath for me,\u201d Dalenberg said. \u201cI mean the pain was pretty bad yesterday. But I didn\u2019t expect to have so many conflicting emotions, because he was an old friend.\u201d<\/p>\n He says he is left to fill out a victim impact statement for the court, but that he\u2019s not yet sure what justice should look like. \u201cI want to at least see some jail time. The more people I talk to the more they remind me about how serious it is. And I can\u2019t drop the charges. It\u2019s now him against the state of Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n Dalenberg shared a final light comment about Ferraro\u2019s choice of a French rolling pin, which he described as not having handles but tapering down at the ends, to attack him with.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a very experienced baker so I just thought it was kind of perfect that that\u2019s what he chose,\u201d Dalenberg said. \u201cNot that it was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n