One of two women accused of killing a Greeley man and lighting his house on fire in October 2021 is set to stand trial later this year after the court heard the last pre-trial testimony at a motions hearing Wednesday.
Stacy Rodriguez, 22, appeared in front of Weld District Judge Vincente Vigil to give that testimony, as Vigil hammered out the details of a few outstanding motions.
Rodriguez and former codefendant Hosanna Varela were arrested in November 2021, stemming from an event on Oct. 3 of that year, when a caller reported a large house fire in the 2400 block of 15th Avenue Court. The caller believed the home’s resident, 35-year-old Chris Dickerson, was still inside.
Police found the house engulfed in flames and upon entering, found Dickerson’s body burned beyond recognition on the front floor near the entrance. Dickerson suffered stab wounds on his neck before the fire started, and the Weld County Coroner’s Office ruled his death a homicide.
Varela struck a plea deal in November, pleading guilty to charges of first-degree arson, tampering with evidence and accessory to murder. She was sentenced to 32 years in prison, with a chance to reduce that sentence with truthful testimony against Rodriguez at her upcoming trial.
Though Rodriguez’s case dates back to Oct. 3, 2021, Wednesday’s testimony focused primarily on a night nearly two weeks later, on Oct. 16, 2021, when Rodriguez and Varela went to a downtown bar with one of Varela’s friends.
The prosecution hoped to show that Rodriguez’s jealous nature on display that night indicated her motive in killing Dickerson. Vigil, however, ruled the testimony could not be provided at the trial later this year.
On Oct. 16, 2021, Varela made plans with a friend to go to a bar in Evans. As they pulled in, Varela got a call from Rodriguez asking the two to come pick her up.
“I don’t think it was a protective thing,” the friend said about the way Rodriguez treated Varela. “I think it was a controlling thing. It was an, ‘If I don’t like what you’re doing, you’re not going to be doing it,’ type of thing.”
They picked Rodriguez up, and after being turned away from a handful of bars due to Rodriguez being underage, the trio ended up at a bar on 8th Avenue around midnight.
Varela’s friend said Rodriguez kept watch on him and Varela throughout the night. He originally attributed that to jealousy, later realizing Rodriguez may have been afraid Varela was going to let something slip about the alleged murder.
The friend testified that he felt Rodriguez disliked him without ever meeting him but acknowledged tension grew throughout the evening — stemming from him feeling like Rodriguez ruined his night out with a friend.
The night culminated in Rodriguez and Varela dropping the friend off at his house. As they approached his house, the man said Rodriguez — who was in the back seat — reached across him, opened his door and shoved him out of the car that was still “moving at a good speed, he said.”
Varela stopped the car, and Rodriguez and the man got into a brief argument, the man said. Rodriguez began attacking the man, punching him in the face and smashing his face into the concrete, he testified.
In a proffer Varela wrote after her plea deal, she mentioned that Rodriguez became jealous of Dickerson after he made a pass at Varela, and that — at least in part — drove Rodriguez to kill him. The prosecution was trying to show Rodriguez’s jealous nature, arguing that it led to her killing Dickerson.
Colorado law says that evidence of prior bad acts cannot be admitted at trial to show a defendant’s prior propensity to commit crimes, unless the value of that evidence in proving relevant facts tied to the case outweighs the danger of a jury being unfairly prejudiced by the evidence.
Vigil decided — in large part to what Varela said in the proffer about Rodriguez being jealous of Dickerson — that the friend’s testimony of the night out did not provide enough new and relevant information about Rodriguez’s motive to outweigh the possible negative consequences of retelling the story in front of a jury.
“The value of this evidence is much lower given the circ*mstances that Ms. Varela did provide a proffer and disclose a fairly extensive description of allegations,” Vigil said. “This may be a different situation if Varela never disclosed that information.”
Rodriguez has a pre-trial readiness conference Oct. 1 ahead of her 10-day trial starting Oct. 14. She faces charges of first-degree murder after deliberation, first-degree arson, tampering with a deceased body and second-degree burglary.
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