In the early morning hours of May 8, 2023, along a stretch of Highway 50 near Sapinero, Colorado, a tragic event unfolded that would claim the lives of two men. Inside a Ford F250 pickup truck, 33-year-old Estefan Coronado from Fruita, Colorado, and Colin Roy Williams, 45, of Clifton, were shot and killed. A Gunnison County sheriff's deputy on patrol around 4:15 a.m. noticed the truck, which had veered off the highway and come to rest in the sagebrush.
The male victim, Estefan Coronado, was found deceased in the vehicle alongside Williams.
The deputy discovered a man, later identified as Zachary Baker, walking away from the truck while on the phone, yelling hysterically that 'they were going to kill me' and that he had shot them. When questioned by the deputy, Baker admitted to the shooting. He was taken into custody without resistance. Inside the truck, both Coronado and Williams were found with multiple gunshot wounds to their torsos, having been shot from behind.
Zachary Baker, a 27-year-old from Grand Junction, was arrested the following day, May 9, and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Baker claimed that he had shot Coronado and Williams because he had become paranoid that they intended to harm him, a fear that he said prompted him to act in self-defense. According to reports, Baker had only known the two men for a couple of weeks.
The investigation into the double homicide was carried out by the Gunnison County Sheriff's Office, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and the Gunnison County Coroner. Baker was held in the Gunnison County Detention Center. Initially held without bond, bail was later set at $1 million. Ultimately, Zachary Baker was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the deaths of Estefan Coronado and Colin Williams.
