Longmont CO: Mirabel murder-Relatives stick by him
Patty
The (Longmont) Daily Times-Call
LONGMONT — A New Mexico murder, connections to a heroin dealing rin
and a fast timeline for a gruesome killing — these are the things they
cling to.
A day after prosecutors filed first-degree murder charges against 21-
year-old Matthew Mirabal, his relatives insist he is innocent and that
police appear to have overlooked other possibilities in the Sept. 26
slaying of his 24-year-old wife, Natalie.
Mirabal's cousin, Gary Mirabal, has known Matthew from the day he
was born and said he believes several things point to his innocence.
Mirabal is blind in one eye from a stabbing injury he suffered as a
child, and the vision in his other one isn't very good either, his
cousin said, making it unlikely he drove from Longmont to Lefthand
Canyon, where Natalie Mirabal's decapitated body was found the day
after she went missing. His eyesight kept him from driving at night;
that's why, according to Matthew Mirabal's alibi, Natalie left for
Safeway after they returned home.
"I don't know Matthew's even thought enough to say that to the
police. He's just a kid," Gary Mirabal said. "He's never had any
trouble with police. He's not a violent person. He wasn't neglected as
a child. He wasn't left in the corner and given the kind of anger to do
a thing like this."
Mirabal has no criminal record and is a devout Christian, something
his mother, Patricia, says makes it impossible for him to have
strangled the girl he knew from childhood then cut off her head.
Mirabal's attorney, Steve Jacobson, has claimed the evidence the
Boulder County Sheriff's Department used to get a warrant for his
arrest is all circumstantial.
Police view things differently.
Little has been revealed about the evidence in the case — and
investigators are observing a gag order from District Judge Dan Hale —
but some of it appears to have the potential to physically link Mirabal
to the crime.
Prosecutor Lawrence "Trip" DeMuth said investigators found evidence
on Natalie Mirabal's ankle they suspect is linked to a similar
substance found on one of Matthew Mirabal's shoes and on a Mini-Mag
Flashlight of his.
The substance, unidentified by police, contains DNA and will be
tested by the Colorado Bureau of Investigations for a genetic match.
And that is just a small amount of physical collected in searches of
the Mirabals' 180 S. Pratt Parkway apartment and the couple's two cars,
police say.
But relatives of Mirabal say the known timeline of the killing
doesn't make sense.
The couple and their 4-month-old daughter went to Boulder the night
before the murder with Matthew's brother and sister-in-law, Marcus and
Lisa Mirabal, and Natalie Mirabal's younger brother, Nehemiah.
Lisa Mirabal said Friday they didn't leave Pearl Street until around
midnight and that she made a purchase at Starbucks that can prove they
were there then.
But the store officially closes at 11 p.m., an employee said.
Matthew Mirabal called Lisa and Marcus around 3 a.m. Sept. 26 to
tell them Natalie never returned from a grocery run.
He had fallen asleep with their daughter Mikaela, he said. Nehemiah
was sleeping as well.
Mirabal's family believes the timeline leaves less than three hours
for the murder to take place, the body to be dumped in Lefthand Canyon
and the contents of her purse to be dropped roadside in north Boulder.
Not enough time for an inexperienced killer with bad eyesight to commit
the crime, the family says in Matthew's defense.
Many of his relatives also wonder about the connection between Dawn
Vasquez, Natalie Mirabal's 23-year-old sister, to members of the Barela
heroin-dealing ring in Chimayo, N.M., the town next door to Chamisal,
where the Mirabal and Vasquez families grew up.
Vasquez was arrested on federal heroin-dealing charges two days
after her sister's body was discovered. She reportedly dated another
arrestee, Isaac Barela.
A state and federal sweep of the New Mexico town netted 34 suspected
heroin dealers and was major news in the semi-rural Española Valley,
where both Chamisal and Chimayo sit.
Heroin has inundated the area for nearly two decades, and the scenic
area between Santa Fe and Taos is said to have an extraordinarily high
heroin-overdose rate, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper.
Members of the Mirabal and Vasquez families, along with several
other members of their church congregation, moved to Longmont, in part
to escape the heroin and joblessness of the area.
In early September, a heroin dealer named Nicky Cordova had his
throat cut in Chimayo, and the area rumor mill has focused on
speculation that Cordova's murder and Natalie Mirabal's are connected.
Boulder County detectives looked into it and found no evidence of a
connection, Sheriff George Epp said.
Although he wouldn't talk about the evidence in the case, he
reiterated comments he made the day his detectives and Longmont police
arrested Mirabal : Good detective work built a strong case.
Like Matthew Mirabal's family, the public will find out what it is
at his December preliminary hearing, he said.
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Before you buy.
Teresa/Colorado
(Originally posted on 10-30-99)
> Greg Avery
> The (Longmont) Daily Times-Call
>
> LONGMONT - A New Mexico murder, connections to a heroin dealing rin
> and a fast timeline for a gruesome killing - these are the things they
> Little has been revealed about the evidence in the case - and
> investigators are observing a gag order from District Judge Dan Hale -