On a cold January evening in the small community of Capulin, Colorado, a birthday celebration turned into a scene of unimaginable violence, leaving three people dead, including Guadalupe Cervantes, a 57-year-old man. It was January 15, 2017, and Cervantes was at his home with family and friends celebrating his 57th birthday. The festivities had started earlier at a local bar where the group was watching a football game.
Later that evening, the party moved to Cervantes' residence.
A man named Santos Navares, 25 years old at the time, who had been at the same bar and had reportedly become belligerent, followed the group to the house. Shortly after 6 p.m., Navares began shooting. When deputies from the Conejos County Sheriff's Office arrived at the home on County Road Y, they discovered a horrific scene. Guadalupe Cervantes was found clinging to life with a gunshot wound to the head but died after officers began performing CPR. Another man, 54-year-old Jose M. Archuleta, was found deceased at the scene with a gunshot wound to the head.
A third victim, 30-year-old Marissa Herrera, was found critically wounded with a gunshot to the head and was rushed to a local hospital before being flown to a hospital in Denver, where she later succumbed to her injuries. A fourth individual, Don L. Martinez, 34, also suffered a gunshot wound to the chest but survived. The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear, though it was reported that Navares had become confrontational at the bar after Herrera had rebuffed his advances.
After the shooting, Santos Navares fled the scene in a stolen van. He was apprehended a few miles away after the vehicle became stuck in the snow. Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies, including the Conejos County Sheriff's Office, Colorado State Patrol, and local police departments, were involved in his capture. Navares was described as being intoxicated and armed at the time of his arrest and allegedly threatened the officers who approached him. He later claimed to have no memory of the shootings.
Navares was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, among other charges. In August 2018, he pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Years later, in 2023, Nevares filed a motion for a hearing, claiming his guilty plea was not voluntary and that he had ineffective legal counsel.
