Colorado & Denver News

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP/CBS4) ― Jurors in the murder trial of Shawna Nelson in Fort Collins heard graphic testimony on Friday from her former lover, Ignacio Garraus.

The affair produced a child, and may have led to the shooting death of Garraus' wife Heather, 37, on on Jan. 23, 2007. Nelson, 36, is charged with first-degree murder and faces life in prison without parole if she's convicted.

Prosecutors are portraying Nelson as a scorned lover who was bent on revenge. They showed the jury a collection of angry emails and text messages sent by Nelson, a former Weld County sheriff's dispatcher, to Garraus, a former Greeley police officer.

Garraus told the jury during testimony that 3 years before his wife was shot to death, his relationship changed with Nelson, a police dispatcher whom he had known for years.

"At some point in time did the two of you begin an affair?" prosecutors asked.

"Yes," Garraus said.

Garraus said Nelson got pregnant by him twice. The first time she got an abortion and the second time a baby boy was born. Nelson also tatooed her lovers nickname, Inaki, on her ankle.

"She altered her body with my name. Why would someone alter their body. We had ... not that type of relationship. I was married, she was married," Garraus said.

Garraus said that when his wife learned of the affair he told Nelson it was over. She then left this phone message:

"Just so you know, I'm getting an attorney tommorrow and I'm getting a DNA test, and you will pay me monthly. If you think that you have no money now, you'll really have no money later."

Then came threatening e-mails and text messages, including a picture of their baby boy sent to Garraus' wife's phone with the message "Ig's flesh and blood."

Within a month Garraus would learn that his wife Heather had been shot. He said he found out at home when he got a phone call after shopping for groceries with his 9-year-old daughter Victoria.

They raced to the hospital.

"I knew where the trauma room was, and I went directly to the trauma room. A doctor that's a friend of mine was treating Heather. (Dr. Peter Maxwell) blocked my entrance into the trauma room. He told me Heather was dead."

Victoria was left outside in the patrol car. "I said, 'Victoria, mommy's dead," Garraus said.

In testimony from some of the police officers who worked on the case Friday, officers told Nelson's defense team that when Nelson was originally arrested, she seemed confused and asked about what had happened.

Heather Garraus was shot and killed outside the credit union in Greeley where she worked. Police say a masked woman confronted Garraus as she was leaving work, ordered her to her knees and shot her twice in the head.

In opening arguments on Thursday Nelson's attorney said Nelson was over her obsession with her lover and did not kill Heather Garraus. Attorney Annette Kundelius said police refused to consider other suspects, such as loan applicants Heather Garraus rejected.

Prosecutor Greg Lammons argued Thursday that Nelson wanted Heather Garraus gone so that she, her son and Ignacio Garraus could live together.

Nelson's husband, Ken Nelson, was a Weld County sheriff's investigator. He was on duty the night of the murder and was charged with hiding the gun his wife allegedly used in the crime.

Investigators said another deputy, Michelle Moore, helped Nelson plan and then cover up the murder at the same time she was working as a sheriffs patrol deputy.

The trial was moved to Fort Collins.

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