RUSH — The El Paso County Sheriff's Office says they have arrested a suspect who allegedly killed 43-year-old Donaciano Amaya in May 2021.
Ranchers Courtney and Nicole Mallery say Amaya was their ranch hand.
On May 12, 2021, just after 6 p.m., deputies were dispatched to the 6000 block of S. Johnson Rd. for a welfare check. Upon arrival, deputies found a dead man on the property. The man was later identified as Amaya by the El Paso County Coroner's Office.
During the investigation, persons of interest were identified.
Below is a timeline of events that led to the arrest of the suspect, Kevin Armondo Chaparro-Macias:
- April 27, 2022: Initial lab results for the DNA submissions excluded those persons of interest, but identified an unknown male
- Oct. 10, 2022: The El Paso County Sheriff's received a notification from a Combined DNA Index System, (CODIS) that tentatively identified a suspect as Chaparro-Macias.
- Feb. 10, 2023: The sheriff's office investigations division received a lab report for a DNA sample collected from Chaparro-Macias.
- March 8, 2023: The Colorado Springs Police Department Metro Fugitives Unit and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office SWAT Team arrested Chaparro-Macias.
Chaparro-Macias has been booked into the El Paso County Jail, is being held without bond, and has been charged with first-degree murder.
You may recognize the names of the ranchers who say the victim was one of their ranch hands.
Courtney and Nicole Mallery have alleged that they are being mistreated by the sheriff's office and their neighbors. Something the sheriff's office denies.
They bought the 640-acre Freedom Acres Ranch in 2020 and say they almost immediately became the target of a harassment campaign that included the poisoning of their animals.
The sheriff's office says they have investigated 19 different complaints filed by or involving the Mallerys and answered over 170 calls for service involving them.
The sheriff's office has posted case reports and hundreds of hours of body cam footage of their interactions with the couple online.
You can click here to read the case reports and watch the videos.
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