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September 30th, 2009 - DA Bringing Personal Touch to Attempted Murder Trial

News article from Colorado Springs Gazette

Summary of the Fort Carson 2nd/4th Brigade Combat Team Killings

DA Bringing Personal Touch to Attempted Murder Trial

 

By John C. Ensslin

Colorado Springs Gazette

September 30, 2009

 

After being told to leave a party, Jose Miguel Barco pulled out a revolver, fired a shot in the ceiling and began pointing the weapon at everyone, a witness said Wednesday.

 

During Barco’s trial on a charge of attempted first-degree murder, witness Zachary Tassia testified that someone told the Fort Carson soldier to put down the weapon and “square up”, meaning fight with his fists.

 

“I don’t fight,” Tassia recalled Barco saying. “I kill people.”

 

Barco is accused in an April 25, 2008 drive-by shooting outside a home on Meander Circle that left Ginny Stefanic, a 19-year-old woman who was six-months pregnant, with a gunshot wound to the thigh. She and her child survived.

 

On Wednesday, Tassia identified Barco as the man who fired the gun in the basement of the home after the host of the party refused to serve him beer and shoved him away from a keg.

 

As he backed out of the room, Barco told the host, “I’m going to kill you. I’ll drop you, you big (expletive)” Tassia testified.

 

A few moments later, Tassia said he watched Barco get into one of two cars that quickly turned around on a cul-de-sac and drove back past the house at 3076 Meander Circle.

 

“Get down!,” Tassia said he shouted to people gathered on the lawn of the house, as he saw Barco point a black snub-nosed revolver and fire several shots toward the house.

 

Testimony is expected to continue through the week. One unusual aspect of the trial is that 4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May is trying the case.

 

May has handled several sentencing hearings, but this is the first time he has taken a case to trial since becoming district attorney in January. May said he did it to lend some experience to the prosecutors handling the case.

 

“I’ve got a very young staff,” he said. In addition to bringing in speakers for staff training, he is trying to pair his more experienced prosecutors with younger district attorneys.

 

External link: http://www.gazette.com/articles/barco-63005-murder-everyone.html

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