A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of criminal attempt to commit murder, a Class 2 felony, after he allegedly assaulted a woman earlier this month.
According to court records, the Durango Police Department met with the victim around 4 a.m. Nov. 5, when she told officers she was assaulted by a man identified as Gabriel Manuel Padilla.
The woman told officers Padilla broke her guitar and then threatened to kill her “with a box-cutter-style knife” while the two were in the Walmart area.
The couple then went to an area around Colorado Highway 3 and Sawmill Road, where the woman said Padilla threatened to kill her “by slicing her throat,” court records show.
Padilla is then accused of strangling the woman multiple times and stabbing her head with a box-cutter knife.
“(The woman) said the final time Padilla choked her, he came up behind her, placed his arm around her neck and choked her so hard that he lifted her off the ground,” the investigating officer wrote.
The woman was taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center where medical professionals found multiple puncture wounds to her head and redness to the woman’s neck. It was also determined she lost consciousness during the incident.
Padilla was contacted by the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office near Ewing Mesa, and he denied threatening to kill the woman and assaulting her. Because the incident was being investigated, he was let go at that time.
The Durango Police Department issued an affidavit for arrest warrant Nov. 6, but the officer wrote Padilla’s whereabouts were unknown at that time. A representative at the La Plata County Jail said Monday that Padilla was in custody.
The Durango Police Department did not immediately return a phone call Monday evening seeking comment.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
