WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — A man arrested on suspicion of burglary at a Wheat Ridge jewelry and antique shop, a month after the owner was shot and killed, could be connected to that homicide, according to an arrest affidavit.
Peter Arguello was fatally shot during a robbery on Nov. 29 at 7220 W. 38th Ave. The shooter left the scene. A stolen red Chevrolet Silverado connected to the suspects was found burned and heavily damaged two days later in Centennial. No one has been charged in the shooting.
During the investigation into the murder, three flex cuffs were found on the floor in front of a safe from which silver coins had been removed. Surveillance video shows a man tried to use the cuffs on Arguello, but Arguello resisted and the man shot him, according to an affidavit.
Lori Doyle, who owns a salon two doors down from Arguello's business, said she was inside her shop on the day of the homicide. A delivery person alerted her to shots fired, and she ran toward the back door.
"Of course we go running out the back door like, let’s go see what’s going on, and we found [Arguello] out his back door," she said. "We didn’t see anyone. We didn’t hear the shots because, of course, there’s two walls away from me, but that’s all we know."
Doyle said she became good friends with Arguello over the years. He often visited her shop.
"He was such an amazing human," she said. "If you needed something, the shirt off his back, he’d give it to you."
According to the arrest affidavit, witnesses saw two people leave Arguello's store through the back door and enter a red pickup truck. Police said they later recovered that truck in Centennial. The affidavit says it had been set on fire and was heavily damaged. Two hats were partially burned and found in the bed of the truck. Those hats matched those worn by the two people who were seen on the surveillance video leaving the scene.
The Jefferson County Regional Crime Lab ran a DNA test on the flex cuffs and, on Dec. 8, matched a DNA profile belonging to Charles Robinson Shay, 40.
A month after the shooting, about 5 a.m. on Dec. 26, someone broke into the rear door of the jewelry and antique store, setting off burglary alarms, and left without taking anything. Investigators found that a stolen vehicle connected to Shay was parked nearby at that time, the affidavit says.
"When I got here the morning after Christmas, there were still police here," Doyle said. "They had everything roped off back there again."
After Shay was arrested, he told investigators he had broken into the jewelry store on Dec. 26. He said he had heard about the homicide at the business and had looked at this "as a crime of opportunity, knowing that the business was boarded up and not occupied," the affidavit says.
When a detective told Shay that his DNA had been found on the flex cuffs recovered after the fatal shooting, Shay decided to stop talking, according to the police.
Shay has been previously convicted for drug possession, motor vehicle theft, vehicular eluding, identity theft and theft. He's also currently wanted on a warrant out of California for a stolen vehicle, according to the affidavit.
Shay is being held in the Jefferson County jail on suspicion of:
- Aggravated motor vehicle theft
- Second-degree burglary
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