Details on the Mirabal Murder Trial
eve
Mirabal murder case to begin
By Christopher Anderson
Camera Staff Writer
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Matthew and Natalie Mirabal left the small town of Chamisal,
N.M., in 1996 hoping to escape the troubles that thrive in a
place of few opportunities.
Sweethearts since they were teenagers, the couple settled in
Longmont looking for a new life.
Matthew, 21, found work as a house painter and was studying to
get a real estate license.
Natalie, 24, worked at Longmont's YMCA daycare center, warming
hearts with her friendly smile. They both attended church at
Platteville Apostolic Church where Natalie was a youth leader,
singer and artist.
In May 1999, the couple had their first child, Mikaela. Then
last September, the trouble they were trying to run away from
caught up with them.
Natalie, reported missing by her husband, was found strangled
and decapitated in Lefthand Canyon.
On Monday, Matthew Mirabal is scheduled to stand trial for the
first-degree murder of his wife. The jury trial in District
Judge Dan Hale's courtroom is expected to last more than two
weeks.
Jury selection is predicted to take all day Monday, with opening
arguments likely to begin Tuesday. Mirabal faces life in prison
without the possibility of parole. Boulder County District
Attorney Alex Hunter said earlier this year he would not seek
the death penalty.
Mirabal is being held on a $750,000 bond in the Boulder County
Jail, where he has remained in custody for almost eight months
since his Oct. 22 arrest.
Family taking sides
Several family members from both sides plan to attend the court
hearings.
Natalie's mother said she has been reviewing videos and
photographs of her daughter and is becoming more and more
nervous as the trial date draws closer.
"She was just a beautiful person," Enselma Vasquez said. "She
didn't deserve to die like this. ... I pray for Matthew, but he
has got to pay for what he did."
Matthew's mother, Patricia, declined to comment but said in a
written statement in November that she did not believe her son
killed Natalie.
"Only a demon-possessed person could commit such a crime," she
said.
Matthew's brother, Marcus, and church leaders also stand by
Matthew and have offered a $10,000 reward for the real killer.
But prosecutors and Boulder County Sheriff's detectives say a
bloody glove, an application for a $1 million life insurance
policy and Matthew's possible affair with his brother's wife
link him to the crime.
Trail of evidence
Matthew Mirabal denies any involvement in the murder and the
affair. Mirabal's attorney has argued in past court hearings the
killing is most likely the result of a stranger attempting a
carjacking that went awry. Defense attorneys will likely expound
on their arguments or present new ones at trial.
Detectives have ruled out robbery and sexual assault as motives.
On Sept. 25, the Mirabals returned to their Longmont home after
an evening stroll on Boulder's Downtown Mall with friends and
family.
Matthew said his wife went to a Longmont Safeway store, 1050 Ken
Pratt Parkway, about 11 p.m. to pick up some items for a church
function early the next day.
She never returned.
On Sept. 26, at about 3:30 a.m., Matthew called 911 to report
his wife missing. He repeatedly insisted police check out her
red Toyota he found in the Safeway parking lot, about 75 feet
from the front door of the store.
Matthew, who had little sleep, was answering questions at police
headquarters at 11 a.m. the same day, when detectives found
Natalie's decapitated body in Lefthand Canyon.
When two hikers searching for landscaping material found
Natalie's body, she was fully clothed. Medical exams did not
find evidence of sexual assault.
DNA tests
When detectives searched Natalie's car, they found a pair of
gloves on the floor of the passenger side. DNA tests showed
blood stains on the palm of one of the gloves matched Natalie's
blood.
Matthew's blood surrounded a cut near the thumb of the same
glove, appearing to seep from the inside of the glove out,
according to prosecutors. Matthew had a cut on the same hand in
the same location, they said.
Prosecutors allege the cut on the hand came while Matthew was
cutting the head of his wife. Defense attorneys have argued that
Matthew could have cut himself at work with the glove on and
left it in Natalie's car, or that a carjacker, hoping not to
leave behind fingerprints or other evidence, could have put the
glove on.
In addition to the glove, detectives found three pieces of a
redwood board that they say also links Matthew to the scene.
One piece of wood was found at the crime scene near Natalie's
head, a second piece alongside U.S. 36 between the crime scene
and Longmont and a third piece in the back of Matthew's truck in
Longmont. All three were cut from the same board, according to
detectives.
As possible motives for the killing, prosecutors will likely
bring up a $1 million life insurance policy the couple attempted
to obtain for Natalie, but not for Matthew. The policy did not
go into effect because they did not qualify.
But at the time of Natalie's death, the couple had applied for
another life insurance police for Natalie. A temporary insurance
policy for $250,000 was in effect while their application was
pending.
Defense attorneys have argued that Natalie's signatures were on
the policy, indicating that she knowingly participated in
applying for them. They also noted there are many insurance
policies that cover just one spouse.
Prosecutors also have suggested that Matthew was having an
affair with Lisa Mirabal, the wife of his brother, Marcus. A
neighbor of Lisa said she saw Matthew's truck parked outside the
apartment and heard noises coming from the bedroom after Marcus
had left for work.
Prosecutors said Lisa has sent several letters to Matthew while
he has been in jail. Both Matthew and Lisa denied the affair
under oath. They said they are just close friends.
The outcome of Monday's trial will help determine the fate of
the couple's daughter. She is in the center of a custody dispute
between grandparents.
Contact Christopher Anderson at (303) 473-1355
orand...@thedailycamera.com.
June 11, 2000
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Teresa/Colorado
Opening arguments in trial could begin today
Attorneys in the first-degree murder trial of Matthew Mirabal could begin
their opening statements today.
On Tuesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys continued to quiz prospective
jurors for a 12-person jury, with two alternates.
Mirabal, 21, is accused of strangling and decapitating his wife, Natalie
Mirabal, 24, in September.
Jury selection began Monday. The trial could last up to three weeks.
Matthew Mirabal, wearing a suit, was present in the courtroom for the past
two days, as were members of both families. Attorneys asked prospective
jurors about fairness and their impressions on several high profile murder
cases, including the JonBenét Ramsey homicide investigation and the O.J.
Simpson trial.
Defense attorneys also asked for reactions if Matthew Mirabal did not
testify in his own defense.
Mirabal's public defender, Steve Jacobson, anticipated opening statements
could begin late this morning or early afternoon.
eve
Greg Avery
Daily Times-Call
BOULDER — The prosecution mentioned previously unknown
evidence and the defense outlined its strategy Wednesday as
Matthew Mirabal's first-degree murder trial went before a jury
for the first time.
Attorneys presented opening arguments in the case after
selecting eight men and six women for a 12-member jury with two
alternates.
Mirabal, 21, faces life imprisonment if convicted of first-
degree murder for allegedly strangling his 24-year-old wife,
Natalie, on Sept. 26, then decapitating her and leaving her body
in Lefthand Canyon before returning to their 180 S. Pratt
Parkway apartment and reporting her missing to Longmont police.
Lead prosecutor Trip DeMuth opened with a blunt description
of the slaying — a narrative that visibly shook some jurors,
made Mirabal weep at the defense table and prompted Natalie
Mirabal's father and sister to hold each other as they looked on
from the crowded courtroom gallery.
"It takes, it took, six to eight minutes to strangle her into
unconsciousness. It took longer if she struggled. While she was
laying there unconscious, her killer continued to strangle her
until the life went out her body," DeMuth said.
"It provided the time necessary for reflection, for judgment
and the decision to kill her."
He went on to describe the case put together by Boulder
County Sheriff's investigators and Longmont police that
suggested Matthew Mirabal planned to murder his wife after
applying for a $1 million life insurance policy on her that
named him the beneficiary.
In addition to physical evidence mentioned at earlier
hearings, DeMuth's opening arguments revealed investigators
found a pair of pants in the trunk of Natalie Mirabal's car that
had blood splatters on it with DNA matched to both Natalie and
Matthew Mirabal, and that blood traces on the car's turn signal
and door panel also traced to both when tested by Colorado
Bureau of Investigation scientists.
Megan Maningo, Mirabal's defense attorney, told the jurors
that investigators "convicted" her client on the first day of
their investigation and looked only for clues pointing to him as
the killer, ignoring the possibility she was the victim of a
carjacking.
"When you lose your objectivity, clues get ignored," she
said. "They convicted Matthew Mirabal that early because they
lost their objectivity. They put on glasses of suspicion."
She suggested that the DNA traces that reportedly link
Mirabal to the crime have other, mundane explanations and
mentioned central pieces of physical evidence missing or never
explained by police — like the knife used to cut off Natalie
Mirabal's head that was never found, the spare set of car keys
to her Corolla that also vanished, and the fact a hair found
inside a pair of gloves has never been matched to anyone.
Those gloves — which contain traces of both Matthew and
Natalie Mirabal's blood, the prosecution says — that were found
under the seat in the Corolla don't make sense either, Maningo
said, imploring jurors to use their common sense in the two or
three weeks of trial ahead.
"(Mirabal) was smart enough to think ahead. He did such a
good job of getting rid of the knife, but left the gloves in the
car? You can't be that smart and that stupid," she said.
Maningo was the first to mention to the jurors the
prosecution's theory that Mirabal had an affair with his
brother's wife.
She urged them to listen carefully to those who knew the
Mirabals best as the testimony unfolds in the coming days.
"The charge fits for whoever did the crime, but use your
common sense," she said.
After opening arguments, DeMuth put Longmont officers Matt
Cage and Bruce Vaughn on the stand to recount their first
contacts with Mirabal on Sept. 26 while the case was still a
missing persons investigation.
Testimony is expected today from prosecution witnesses who
are participants in the investigation, including Longmont patrol
officers, former Longmont Detective Steve Slawson and county
coroner Dr. John Meyers.
Back
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Teresa/Colorado
By Pam Regensberg
Camera Staff Writer
------------------------------------
Police ignored evidence that pointed to a carjacker as Natalie Mirabal's
killer and zeroed in on her husband as the only suspect, a defense attorney
argued Wednesday in Matthew Mirabal's first-degree murder trial.
But prosecutors say they have ample DNA evidence, including bloody gloves
and clothing, linking the 21-year-old Longmont painter to the Sept. 26
strangulation and decapitation of his wife.
Police "put on glasses of suspicion and lost their objectivity," one of
Mirabal's attorneys, Megan Maningo, said during her opening statement.
The trial opened after 2˝ days of jury selection in which attorneys seated
eight men and six women - 12 jurors and two alternates - to weigh Mirabal's
guilt or innocence. The trial is expected to last up to three weeks.
Matthew Mirabal is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of his
24-year-old wife. Her decapitated body was found in Lefthand Canyon on Sept.
26, hours after Matthew Mirabal reported her missing.
Matthew Mirabal told police his wife didn't return home after a midnight run
to Safeway, which was a one-minute drive or a five-minute walk from their
home. Her red Toyota Corolla, with scratches along the right side, was later
found in the store's parking lot.
"On Sept. 25, Matthew Mirabal was a happily married man and the proud father
of a baby girl," Maningo said. "On Sept. 26, he became a widower ... an
accused murderer."
Police and prosecutors say Matthew Mirabal killed his wife to collect a
sizable life insurance payoff. In searching the couple's apartment, Longmont
police reportedly found an application for a $1 million policy for Natalie.
While that application was never approved, a temporary policy of $250,000
was apparently pending.
Authorities also suggested that Matthew Mirabal was having an affair with
his brother's wife, Lisa Mirabal.
Defense attorneys said police ignored evidence pointing to someone else as
the killer.
Maningo said a investigators disregarded a cigarette butt found at the
murder scene. They also discounted tire tracks near where Natalie's body was
found, she said.
Furthermore, there was no reported domestic abuse in the relationship.
"This is horrible crime, but we're not here to solve that crime," Maningo
said to the jury.
Prosecutor Trip DeMuth indicated Matthew Mirabal's actions following the
murder were suspicious.
Instead of calling police when he awoke about 3 a.m. to find her missing,
Mirabal called his brother and then his pastor. He didn't wake up Nehemiah
Vasquez, Natalie's younger brother who was living with the couple. He did
not run around the corner to the grocery store to look for her, DeMuth said.
"Natalie Mirabal's neck was squeezed. It was not rope or a ligature, but
manually," DeMuth said.
He said Natalie Mirabal could have been strangled for up to 10 seconds
before losing consciousness. That is plenty of time for the killer to
reflect on his actions, he said.
In his opening statements, DeMuth said a Boulder County sheriff's detective
found a pair of bloody gloves under the passenger seat of the Toyota.
Authorities also found bloody black pants in the car's trunk. Both items
contained DNA material that is consistent with both of the Mirabals, DeMuth
said.
Swabs of the Toyota's driver's side door handle and the turn signal
contained a mixture of blood that likely belonged to both Mirabals as well,
he added.
In addition, sheriff's Detective Steve Ainsworth found a Wal-Mart bag in a
trash can at Matthew Mirabal's work. The bag contained a label for a brand
of gloves similar to those found in the Toyota. It also contained the
packaging for a Mini-Mag Light. The bag itself contained one of Matthew
Mirabal's fingerprints, DeMuth said.
Authorities never located the instrument used to cut off Natalie Mirabal's
head.
Testimony from Longmont police officers will continue today. Boulder County
Coroner John Meyer may testify today, as well.
June 15, 2000
eve
By Christopher Anderson
Camera Staff Writer
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Natalie Mirabal, 24, probably was decapitated in a single, quick
slice with an extremely sharp instrument, the Boulder County
coroner testified at trial Thursday.
Coroner John Meyer, taking the witness stand in the first-degree
murder trial of Matthew Mirabal, said he could not determine
what instrument was used to cut the victim's head but estimated
the blade was at least five inches long.
Detectives have not found the weapon.
Meyer also gave medical explanations of why he believed the
decapitation occurred after Natalie Mirabal had been manually
strangled.
But he said the victim's swollen and bruised left eye, a small
bruise on her upper right lip, a blunt-force laceration to the
back of her head and several other injuries to her body appear
to have occurred before her death.
Meyer's statements were part of the second day of testimony in a
trial that is expected to last three weeks.
Matthew Mirabal, 21, faces a possible sentence of life in prison
if convicted in the September death of his wife.
The Longmont man has been in custody in the Boulder County Jail
on a $750,000 bond since his arrest Oct. 22.
Although prosecutors say a bloody glove, an application for a $1
million life-insurance policy and a possible affair with his
brother's wife help tie him to the crime, defense attorneys are
arguing that police overlooked evidence that points to an attack
by a stranger.
Thursday's testimony included Longmont police officers and
Boulder County sheriff's deputies detailing interviews with
Matthew Mirabal, who reported his wife missing at 3 a.m. Sept.
26, and their inspection of Natalie Mirabal's red Toyota.
Her car was found in the parking lot of a Longmont Safeway, 1050
Ken Pratt Parkway, but two employees testified Thursday that
they did not recall seeing Natalie Mirabal at the store or any
disturbances.
Two other witnesses recalled for the jury where and how they
found Natalie Mirabal's purse and driver's license in separate
locations along roadways in north Boulder.
Mirabal's defense attorney, Steve Jacobson, said a person
discarding those items while driving south could have been
headed for Denver or anywhere in the metropolitan area.
Prosecutor Trip DeMuth, however, pointed out that no items were
found beyond the Diagonal Highway to Longmont, where the couple
had lived since 1996.
Boulder City planner Brent Bean described for the jury how he
discovered Natalie Mirabal's body in a wooded area in Lefthand
Canyon while he and his wife were out searching for rocks for
their home garden.
At about 11 a.m., Bean said, he first found a black high-heeled
shoe, turned around and noticed another one about 10 feet away.
Bean said he was getting ready to hang the shoes on a tree so
they could easily be found when he saw Natalie Mirabal's body.
"I thought initially it was a mannequin," Bean said. About 10
feet away from the body, he saw a clump of hair, which he later
realized was the victim's head.
Bean told his wife what he found, and the two called for
sheriff's deputies from a cell phone, waiting about 20 minutes
for the first deputy to arrive.
Boulder County medical investigator Gordon Johnson testified
that Natalie Mirabal was lying on her back. She was wearing a
black knee-length skirt, panties and a bra. A white blood-
stained shirt was crumpled up and left on top of her chest.
Johnson said her body had full rigor mortis and liver mortis,
the settling of blood to the lowest part of the body after
death.
Meyer could not give an exact time of death but estimated
Natalie Mirabal died eight to 12 hours earlier. The coroner said
he could not tell by the evidence where she had been killed or
where she had been decapitated.
But he said the lack of blood from the cut to her neck indicated
her heart was no longer beating when she was decapitated.
The decapitation appeared to have occurred with "one very
forceful incision," Meyer said. "It could have been done in a
matter of seconds."
Meyer, however, said he could not rule out with certainty that
it took more than one cut. But the wound is in a "single plane,"
Meyer said. He testified there was no evidence of a "sawing"
or "chopping" motion or that a serrated-edge blade was used.
Small hemorrhages within the skin above the neck line, and
injuries to the throat and tongue, led Meyer to conclude Mirabal
died from asphyxia due to strangulation, he said.
There was no evidence of sexual assault, he said.
At some point during the trial, the eight men and six women who
make up the 12-panel jury with two alternates are expected to
take a night-time tour of the Safeway parking lot where Natalie
Mirabal's car was found and the Lefthand Canyon site where her
body was discovered.
At the end of the day Thursday, District Court Judge Dan Hale
gave a stern warning to attorneys that witnesses excluded from
observing testimony are not to talk to courtroom observers. His
statement followed a report that some observers were describing
the testimony to witnesses during the break.
Hale said such behavior places the trial in jeopardy.
"It just won't be tolerated," Hale said.
June 16
eve
By Pam Regensberg
Camera Staff Writer
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Attorneys in the first-degree murder trial of Matthew Mirabal
grilled two detectives for more than six hours Friday, with the
defense continuing to criticize investigators for allegedly
focusing only on Mirabal as a suspect.
Defense attorney Steve Jacobson cross-examined Boulder County
sheriff's detectives Steve Ainsworth and Tony Matthews about how
officers conducted the investigation into the strangulation and
decapitation of Mirabal's wife, Natalie Mirabal, 24.
Officers delayed checking out theories that a carjacker or a
stranger abducted and killed her, Jacobson contended in the
third day of testimony.
Jacobson argued that detectives went about the investigation as
if Matthew Mirabal, 21, of Longmont killed his wife.
Mirabal is being held in Boulder County Jail on a $750,000 bond
in connection with the September slaying. He is charged with
first-degree murder and faces a sentence of life in prison
without parole if convicted.
Mirabal appeared more relaxed Friday than he did during opening
arguments. At times he chewed on the end of a pen. At one point
he wiped his brow with a tissue.
Matthew Mirabal called police early Sept. 26 to say his wife did
not return from a late night trip to Safeway. Natalie Mirabal's
decapitated body was found in Lefthand Canyon a few hours later.
She had been strangled before her neck was cut, the Boulder
County coroner determined.
Defense attorneys said Natalie Mirabal was probably the victim
of a carjacking gone awry.
Prosecutors say Matthew Mirabal killed his wife to cash in on a
hefty life insurance policy. Authorities said he sought a $1
million policy for his wife, but it was later reduced to
$250,000 after the insurance company told him it had difficulty
justifying the dollar amount.
Furthermore, prosecutors say they have DNA evidence that points
to Mirabal as the killer. Some of that evidence was presented to
the jury Friday.
While questioning Detective Matthews, prosecutors displayed a
pair of blood-stained black pants found in the trunk of Natalie
Mirabal's Toyota Corolla.
Prosecutors also presented a photograph of a pair of bloody
gloves sticking out from under the passenger seat of the Toyota.
Matthews also held up three pieces of 2-by-2 redwood board that
were found in three different locations: one near Natalie
Mirabal's body, another in the bed of Matthew Mirabal's pickup
truck and another on U.S. 36.
Jacobson questioned why other items that could have been
evidence were ignored.
"Do you only take things of evidentiary value?" Jacobson asked
Matthews.
Jacobson also asked why a cigarette butt found near Natalie
Mirabal's body was not sent to the Colorado Bureau of
Investigation for analysis. Matthews indicated officers take
what they believe to be important or useful to the
investigation.
The trial will continue Monday with more testimony from
Matthews. Also, representatives from the insurance company are
scheduled to testify.
Contact Pam Regensberg at (303) 473-1329 or