Judge orders documents unsealed in murder case

New details about what led to the arrest of Arturo Navarrete-Portillo in his wifes death Carbondales first homicide in 12 years will be made public perhaps as soon as Wednesday, Garfield County District Court Judge James Boyd decided Tuesday in weighing the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and the press, and the Sixth, which guarantees a fair trial.

Authorities say Navarrete-Portillo admitted to killing his wife, Maria Carminda Portillo-Amaya, 30, as he was being flown to Grand Junction for medical treatment after a car accident on Feb. 16. Charged with first-degree murder, he sat quietly in a wheelchair listening by earpiece to a translator as public defenders sought to keep secret the contents of the arrest affidavit in his case. They argued that its disclosure would make it hard to seat an impartial jury, should the case go to trial.

The district attorneys office and the Post Independent argued that upholding the publics right to know what is going on in its courts would not compromise Navarrete-Portillos defense.

The public does have an interest in open courts, which includes ... things that get filed in court, Boyd said from the bench. The defense, he said, had not shown an appropriate basis to keep this arrest warrant sealed.

Because Boyds order was rendered after 5 p.m. at end of a hearing on several motions and because the clerk of the court must review the affidavit for possible redactions, the document is not expected to be available until Wednesday morning at the earliest.

Such affidavits outline the reasons to issue an arrest warrant and usually contain some details of the preliminary investigation.

Its a common practice in Garfield County for judges to keep those documents secret until a suspect has been arrested, ostensibly to avoid interfering with ongoing investigations. Theyre usually unsealed in time for the first court appearance, but Navarrete-Portillos wasnt.

Deputy public defender Elise Myer said the affidavit was sealed by Judge Denise Lynch shortly after the warrant was issued Feb 24. Myer told the court that prosecutors asked that the affidavit remained sealed until authorities investigation was complete.

Myer said the public defenders office, which took over the case March 4 when Navarrete-Portillo was released from protective custody in the hospital and formally arrested, should have time to conduct its own investigation before information in the affidavit was made public.

With the defenses objection itself under seal, Tuesdays hearing was the first time its arguments were aired in a public forum.

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Judge orders documents unsealed in murder case