GLENDALE, Colo. — A third suspect is now in custody in connection with an April shooting in Glendale that left one man dead and another man seriously wounded.
Court records show Blake Warren was detained on a warrant on Aug. 15. He faces multiple charges including first-degree murder. Sarah Sandoval and Caleb Choice, who were dating, were already in custody in connection with the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Gianni Fernandez. Another man was shot nine times but survived, according to court documents obtained by 9NEWS Investigates.
Police said Warren was arrested in Spring, Texas with the assistance from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Marshals Office. He remains in custody awaiting extradition.
Glendale Police responded to an apartment at the Urban Phenix Apartments at 4701 E. Mississippi Ave. around 3 a.m. on April 5. When they arrived at the unit they knocked on the door and heard a man screaming inside, an arrest affidavit says. The officer went inside through an unlocked door and found two men who had been shot. One of them, later identified as Fernandez, was unconscious and not breathing.
The officers also observed shell casings throughout the apartment and one officer even noted he could smell that a weapon had recently been fired inside the apartment. The officers spoke briefly with the wounded victim before he was taken to the hospital and he mentioned that a woman he knew had been present during the shooting but did not provide additional details.
That victim's sister later contacted police and said her brother told her an "unknown woman" had been at the apartment and they wanted her to leave, the affidavit says. They thought she had ordered an Uber, but she returned to the apartment a short time later with two men and started "shooting them up," the affidavit says.
A day after the shooting, the surviving victim spoke with investigators. He said he woke up to Fernandez yelling his name and that he went over to his room and saw a woman with a gun, the affidavit says. He said the woman shot Fernandez and then him. He said he began to crawl to Fernandez and two men fired additional shots at both of them, the affidavit says.
Investigators later found a video of a woman and two men entering the complex. They determined that some items found inside the victim's apartment were items the woman was seen wearing in the video, the affidavit says. A bank card with Sandoval's name on it was also found inside a purse in the apartment.
Two days after the shooting, on April 7, a sergeant with the Colorado Springs Police Department called Glendale Police and said he believed he had identified the woman they were looking for in connection to the killing. He explained he had taken a missing person report for Sandoval and that her photos appeared to match the ones that Glendale Police had sent out to other agencies.
Investigators were later contacted by an employee of a Colorado Springs fast-food restaurant who said he worked with Choice and said Choice had missed a few shifts recently. That person said when he finally got in touch with Choice, Choice disclosed he had been involved in an incident near Denver where two people had been shot and one of them lived, the affidavit says.
A former high school classmate of Sandoval also called police and identified Sandoval as being involved in the shooting. She reported that Sandoval had called her and told her about the shooting. When the woman asked if Sandoval "pulled the trigger," she said Sandoval responded that she "did what she had to do," the affidavit says.
Another person came forward and said Sandoval had called him from the Austin Correctional Facility where she was in custody. He told police she wanted to tell "her side" of the story. According to the affidavit, Sandoval told the man she went to the apartment to "make money." She said she went to open the gate and said Choice wanted to leave, but she insisted she wanted to "stay and make money."
She told the man, according to the document, that Choice was the one who shot Fernandez when he walked in on what was happening between them. The documents go on to say that she told the man Warren shot the other victim and that she was lying on the bed.
