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Crime Briefs: Rifle man convicted of sex assault, using weapon

Ryan Summerlin
rsummerlin@postindependent.com

A jury convicted 28-year-old Nathaniel Trujillo of Rifle of sex assault by overcoming a victim’s will with a deadly weapon, a charge that falls in the second-most serious felony classification.

The jury also found Trujillo guilty of possession of a controlled substance with a deadly weapon, a Class 1 drug felony, along with the felonies of menacing with a deadly weapon and possession of a controlled substance.

Rifle police arrested Trujillo in June after a woman reported that at a party at his house, Trujillo raped her while holding a gun.



“Throughout the night, Trujillo possessed, used and handed out drugs, including cocaine and methamphetamine, and simultaneously was in possession of one or two guns,” according to a press release from the district attorney’s office. “During the early morning hours, Trujillo raped the victim while holding a gun, and later that morning, forced the victim, at gunpoint, to undress because Trujillo believed the victim had stolen money and/or drugs.”

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 9, when he will face a possible 16-48 years to life in prison on the sex assault charge.



Worst. Landlord. Ever.

A 20-something couple looking for a place to stay thought they had made a breakthrough when their Craigslist ad was answered by a man offering to rent them a room in his Rifle apartment earlier this month.

But after moving in they soon realized that the 55-year-old man renting to them would drink most of the day, according to an affidavit.

They moved in on a Wednesday. By Friday the couple had their first disagreement with the man after he “threatened to shove a knife through (the husband’s) skull” because he had startled the landlord.

“It took (the husband) many hours to calm (the 55-year-old) down on this night,” an officer wrote in his report.

On the next night, the older man grew angry about his tenants’ dogs barking, and he threatened to call the police.

The Rifle Police Department fielded several calls over this period from the 55-year-old concerning his new tenants.

The 55-year-old called police saying he was afraid of someone he had rented a room to, according to a police report. The next evening the 55-year-old called police to a disturbance at the house, but the call was determined to be unfounded.

“They are afraid of (the older man) because of his drinking and that he walks around the apartment with large knives and has large knives all around,” according to an arrest affidavit.

Within five days the couple had moved out and rented a hotel room.

But it didn’t end there. The couple kept receiving numerous emails and texts from the man.

“The emails kept coming at all hours of the night,” according to the couple.

A couple days after they had moved out, he sent the wife a text saying “How was breakfast,” making police suspect that he was watching her.

The 55-year-old was arrested on felony stalking.

Cocaine found in DUI suspect’s wallet

In a traffic stop in Glenwood Springs early April 8, officers spotted in the back of the vehicle a six pack of Pacifico, five of which were empty.

The driver’s eyes were bloodshot and the officer smelled alcohol.

Performing some roadside sobriety tests, the officer observed several indicators the man, a 26-year-old, was intoxicated. And he blew a .189 BAC on a breath test.

At the jail, detentions deputies found that the man had given a false name. The man then told authorities that he used a friend’s ID to go to a bar, as his license had been canceled.

In the vehicle officers later found the man’s wallet, which contained a folded-up dollar bill concealing cocaine. With the bill, the drug weighed about a gram.

He was arrested on charges of possession of a controlled substance, a drug felony, and felony criminal impersonation.

Also among his arresting charges were driving under the influence and driving without a valid license, both misdemeanors.

Driver fakes holdup, found with heroin

On the morning of April 10, a sheriff’s sergeant spotted a Jeep Cherokee on Garfield County Road 154 with damage to its front, missing a front quarter panel and cracks in the windshield.

The sergeant stopped the vehicle after catching it speeding. While he was running the two in the car through dispatch for warrants, dispatch received a 911 call about someone holding people at gunpoint at Thunder River Market. But the number the call had come from was found to belong to the driver, a 24-year-old woman.

“At this time I believed that (she) was making a false report of a subject with a gun to make me discontinue the traffic stop,” the sergeant wrote in his report.

Dispatch found that she had two warrants, out of Garfield and Eagle counties, both for driving under restraint.

While arresting the woman, the sergeant found a glass pipe containing a brown substance. And in a small metal container, law enforcement found a small plastic bag containing a “brown tar like substance” that tested positive for heroin.

In the vehicle were also some items of clothing and vehicle registrations connected to a Carbondale theft.

She was arrested on charges included possession of a controlled substance, a drug felony, along with misdemeanors false reporting to authorities and driving under restraint.

Police recover $100, Dolce and Gabbana

Garfield County deputies responded to a report of trespassing Tuesday night near Rifle. A woman driving home from work noticed a black Volkswagen parked across from her home, in a place where people usually don’t park, she told police.

Pulling into her driveway she saw a man run in front of her car and away from the house. Then she looked back and saw a man in the driver’s seat of the Volkswagen. He looked at her and slowly drove away, she told police.

Her husband, who had been at home, checked his vehicle and found about $100 cash missing from his wallet and a bottle of Dolce and Gabbana cologne was missing.

At the Roadway Inn, police found a 21-year-old man and a woman near a black Volkswagen. Inside the vehicle, visible from outside, were clothing matching the description police had been given, a bottle of Dolce and Gabbana and a pipe containing residue suspected to be methamphetamine.

The victims came to the hotel and identified both the vehicle as the one the woman had seen, and the cologne as the item that was missing.

In the 21-year-old suspect’s pockets, officers found $97.

A woman riding in the Volkswagen with the 21-year-old man also confirmed that he had been driving the car and had gotten out at the couple’s house.

He was arrested on charges of first-degree criminal trespass, a felony, and misdemeanors theft from a vehicle and driving under restraint.


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