What first looked like a deadly late-August crash on U.S. 24 is now being painted in court as a professional hit, with an El Paso County detective testifying that the victim was likely marked for a murder-for-hire.
During a hearing Friday, Detective Bradley Whitehead told a judge that the man found dead inside a pickup, 29-year-old Noel Gutierrez-Cano, may have been singled out for an execution-style killing and that an autopsy showed signs he had been beaten before being shot, according to The Colorado Springs Gazette. Whitehead testified that, during the investigation, the defendant said he overheard Gutierrez-Cano make a call from a Denver hotel the night before the killing to someone he referred to as “comandante.” That testimony helped convince El Paso County Judge Robin Chittum that there was enough evidence to advance first-degree murder and related charges against 26-year-old Jose Cruz Diaz Vazquez.
Gutierrez-Cano’s body was found in the passenger seat of a stolen white GMC Sierra that was towing a black trailer loaded with two ATVs. Deputies say witnesses and video footage steered investigators to a traffic stop shortly after the crash. A search of the impounded vehicle turned up .22-caliber shell casings and a backpack containing items investigators say are tied to carjackings, and authorities report that a separate stop yielded a small .22 handgun with live rounds missing, according to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. Officials say tips from the public and body-camera footage were key in connecting Diaz Vazquez to the case…