THORNTON, Colo. — Police have arrested a California man who now faces charges in a deadly assault outside a Thornton bar on Christmas Day of last year -- a break that came after a detective belatedly discovered a cell phone in the evidence locker that led them to the suspect.
It was initially believed that phone, which was picked up off the ground outside Thirsty's Pub following the assault, belonged to the man who died, Manuel Osvaldo Jacquez-Machado.
It wasn't until Jan. 31 -- more than five weeks after the assault -- that an investigator realized the phone didn't belong to Jacquez-Machado. Data from the phone led investigators to Shane Kaufman, 29.
He faces a charge of felony second-degree assault and was being held Tuesday in the Adams County jail on $75,000 bail, according to court documents obtained by 9Wants to Know.
Thornton Police said officers responded just before 10 p.m. Dec. 25 to a reported crash involving a pedestrian outside Thirsty's, located at 1294 E. 104th Ave. Jacquez-Machado, 69, was taken to a hospital, where he died the next day.
Investigators initially thought a driver hit Jacquez-Machado. Instead, they learned he backed into an occupied Jeep as he was leaving the bar, that the two drivers exchanged words, and that it escalated to a physical confrontation.
According to court documents, a witness told officers that the Jeep's driver punched Jacquez-Machado, who fell to the ground. That witness thought Jacquez-Machado "was probably unconscious before he hit the ground due to how he fell and that he did not brace himself."
The man, according to documents, "then walked up to" Jacquez-Machado "and kicked him."
While a witness was attempting to help Jacquez-Machado, he pulled his wallet from his pocket. Later, according to documents, another witness found a cell phone near him and thought it was the item that had been pulled out of Jacquez-Machado's pocket.
An officer booked it into evidence apparently believing it was the victim's phone.
On Jan. 31, Jacquez-Machado's wife called police and asked that his wallet be returned. While the investigator was searching the evidence locker for the wallet, he located the phone and asked Jacquez-Merchado's wife about it. She said it wasn't his -- that she had his phone.
Detectives then got a warrant to search that phone. They located information about Kaufman -- and learned he'd been in Colorado to snowboard. They also used cell phone location data, which put the phone in the area of Thirsty's at the time of the incident.
According to court documents, Kaufman left Colorado a day or so after seeing a bulletin about Jacquez-Machado's death.
Javier Osvaldo-Jacquez, the victim's son, described the victim as "a husband, a father, a brother, a friend and to many the joy of the party." He was also a cancer survivor who lived with rheumatoid arthritis for the past 35 years.
A spokesperson for Thornton Police confirmed on Tuesday that Kaufman was arrested in Los Angeles on March 22 on a warrant. He is due back in court May 18.
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