In custody on a $250,000 cash-only bond, Valerie Espinoza, 38, was indicted by a county grand jury in October in connection with the stabbing death of 62-year-old Charles Chaves inside his South Madison Street home on Sept. 19. Reports show the victim was stabbed seven times in his torso with a butcher\u2019s knife during a morning attack.<\/p>\n
A 9 a.m. arraignment was set for Feb. 10, after a request by defense counsel for the court to review grand jury testimony to determine whether prosecutorial misconduct occurred.<\/p>\n
If convicted of second-degree murder, she faces 8 to 24 years in prison.<\/p>\n
FAMILY DOLLAR FIRE<\/p>\n
This week, an arraignment hearing was continued until January for the alleged arsonist in the summer Family Dollar Store fire.<\/p>\n
Free on a $25,000 bond, James Alexander, 20, of Cortez, was charged in September with three counts of arson in connection with the May 14 fire. A Colorado Bureau of Investigations probe determined that an accelerant was used in the fire.<\/p>\n
Alexander reportedly worked as an assistant manager at the Family Dollar store for a week before the blaze.<\/p>\n
The building sustained heavy damage. No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n
A 1:30 p.m. dispositional hearing was scheduled for Alexander on Jan. 9.<\/p>\n
SEX OFFENDER<\/p>\n
This week, an arraignment hearing was scheduled in January for a convicted sex offender facing nine new felony charges of sexual assault on a child.<\/p>\n
In custody on a $30,000 bond, Andrew Allmon, 54, of Cortez, was indicted by a county grand jury in August on the charges in connection to the alleged abuse of an 8-year-old girl. Reports show the charges stem from incidents that occurred over a two-week period in June at the defendant\u2019s North State Street residence.<\/p>\n
A 10:30 a.m. arraignment was set for Jan. 9 after a request from defense counsel for additional time to review the grand jury testimony.<\/p>\n
Allmon was convicted in 2008 of false imprisonment and sexual assault of a minor in New Mexico.<\/p>\n
FELON WITH A FIREARM<\/p>\n
A sentencing hearing was scheduled in January after a felon pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm.<\/p>\n
Convicted in 2012 of felony menacing for use of force with a deadly weapon, John Finocchiaro, 30, of Cortez, could receive a one- to three-year prison sentence, a $100,000 fine and two years of parole at a 2:30 p.m. hearing on Jan. 9.<\/p>\n
The defendant requested an immediate sentencing on Tuesday, Dec. 17, but Finocchiaro changed his mind upon the advice of a public defender.<\/p>\n
Records reveal the firearm was a small silver handgun. Finocchiaro, known as Fetus, was released from prison in August on the menacing conviction and was arrested a month later for violating his parole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
custody on a $250,000 cash-only bond, Valerie Espinoza, 38, was indicted by a county grand jury in October in connection with the stabbing death of 62-year-old Charles Chaves inside his South Madison Street home on Sept. 19. Reports show the victim was stabbed seven times in his torso with a butcher\u2019s knife during a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[741,75,150,131,60,524],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-59523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-arson","tag-court-preliminary","tag-firearms","tag-homicide","tag-montezuma-county","tag-sexual-assault"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59523","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=59523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59523"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=59523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}