{"id":95972,"date":"2019-01-25T16:17:39","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T23:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/judge-finds-probable-cause-in-july-aggravated-robbery\/"},"modified":"2019-01-25T16:17:39","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T23:17:39","slug":"judge-finds-probable-cause-in-july-aggravated-robbery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/judge-finds-probable-cause-in-july-aggravated-robbery\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge finds probable cause in July aggravated robbery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Begaye\"
Begaye<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After hearing conflicting stories on Wednesday, a Montezuma County judge ruled that the District Attorney\u2019s Office established probable cause that a Cortez man committed aggravated robbery in July.<\/p>\n

The case was bound over to 22nd Judicial District Court after Wednesday\u2019s preliminary hearing.<\/p>\n

Shane Begaye, 32, was arrested on a warrant in October in connection with an alleged aggravated robbery on County Road 25 over the summer. The alleged victim in the case, Jerry Smith, and the investigating officer, Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Steven King, were subpoenaed and testified in court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Despite the subpoena, Smith initially did not appear in court for the 2:30 p.m. docket. Assistant District Attorney Matthew Margeson said Smith told him he had frostbite on his toe and couldn\u2019t make it. Montezuma County Judge JenniLynn Lawrence ordered a deputy to retrieve Smith from his home on County Road 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is under subpoena,\u201d Lawrence said. \u201cHe is required to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

About an hour later, Smith was in court and ready to testify. He was wearing tennis shoes and was able to walk unassisted.<\/p>\n

Margeson cross-examined Smith. He testified that in July Begaye came onto his property and took two 12-inch Kenwood subwoofers from his car. He valued the subwoofers at $600. He repeatedly testified that he was \u201chalf asleep\u201d during the incident and when he spoke to the deputy.<\/p>\n

Margeson asked Smith if he told the deputy that Begaye had a gun and if he pointed it at him. Smith avoided answering the question directly and said, \u201cI was half asleep and half awake.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then testified that Begaye had pointed his finger at him rather than a gun. He said Begaye did not have permission to be on the property or to take the two subwoofers.<\/p>\n

Under cross-examination by public defender Jonathan Jourdane, Smith testified that Begaye did not have a gun and that he did not feel threatened by Begaye.<\/p>\n

Smith testified that they \u201chad an agreement\u201d over an amp, but he said Begaye told him the amp didn\u2019t work, so he came to take the two subwoofers. Smith said he agreed that because the amp didn\u2019t work, he was OK with Begaye taking the speakers.<\/p>\n

The question of whether Begaye had a gun was a main point in King\u2019s testimony. Upon cross-examination from Margeson, King testified that in July he responded to Smith\u2019s report of a theft. When he arrived, he said Smith told him that Begaye came to his property, stole two speakers, words were exchanged, and Begaye pulled a gun.<\/p>\n

Margeson played a portion of King\u2019s bodycam video that clearly shows Smith telling the deputy that Begaye had a gun. In the video, Smith gestured as if he was pulling a pistol from his waistband to show how Begaye had drawn the gun. King also testified that a firearm was never recovered in the case.<\/p>\n

Lawrence said she recognizes that in sworn testimony Smith said Begaye didn\u2019t have a gun despite his statement in the bodycam. But she ruled that the prosecution established probable cause of aggravated robbery and that items were taken from Smith\u2019s property.<\/p>\n

Begaye is scheduled for arraignment in 22nd Judicial District Court on Feb. 5.<\/p>\n

sdolan@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alleged victim changes story in court<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95972","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=95972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95972"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}