{"id":25571,"date":"2024-09-24T00:23:19","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T06:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/woman-facing-murder-trial-dies-after-serious-medical-problem-in-san-juan-county-jail\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:20:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:20:58","slug":"woman-facing-murder-trial-dies-after-serious-medical-problem-in-san-juan-county-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/woman-facing-murder-trial-dies-after-serious-medical-problem-in-san-juan-county-jail\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman facing murder trial dies after \u2018serious medical problem\u2019 in San Juan County jail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sierra
Sierra Chaffin<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The woman at the center of the William Johnson homicide has died from injuries she received while in the San Juan County Detention Center.<\/p>\n

Sierra Collins, 23, was hospitalized Sept. 13 at San Juan Regional Medical Center with \u201cserious medical problems\u201d and \u201climited brain function,\u201d according to an unopposed emergency motion to modify conditions of release.<\/p>\n

The nature of the medical problem was not stated in the motion, but it did state that the San Juan County Detention Center was \u201cunable to properly provide the necessary care\u201d to Collins in order \u201cto maintain her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

A motion to drop the charges was filed Sept. 20, and it states, \u201cthe defendant is deceased. Consequently, the present matter is rendered moot, and the case is dismissed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collins was charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the July 24, 2022, killing of Johnson at his home on County Road 3400.<\/p>\n

It was alleged that Collins encouraged Eli Chaffin, 21, and Tyler Chaffin, 25, to shoot Johnson, with whom she was in a relationship. The Chaffin brothers entered into a plea agreement on July 31, admitting to the role they played in Johnson\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Eli Chaffin pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to six years in prison. Tyler Chaffin pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Eli who shot Johnson, when he thought the man was going to shoot his brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard a firearm go off. I got out of the vehicle at the end of the back side, I saw Mr. Johnson reaching for a firearm. I yelled at him several times to stop. He would not, so I shot and killed him,\u201d Eli said during the hearing.<\/p>\n

Both he and Tyler had driven Sierra to Johnson\u2019s home to \u201ccheck on her car,\u201d which was \u201csupposedly being worked on by William,\u201d according to the affidavit for arrest warrant.<\/p>\n

During the Chaffin brothers\u2019 hearing, Defense Attorney Mark Curnutt alluded to Collins\u2019 \u201cthreatening\u201d actions toward Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very evident that Sierra Collins had the ability to provoke the absolute extremes out of Mr. Johnson.\u201d Curnutt said, adding Collins knew Johnson was a \u201cgood guy,\u201d who \u201cdid wear his emotions on his sleeve. She played on that. She knew about his prior actions. She could provoke things out of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one text message dated July 23, 2022, Collins allegedly told William to meet her \u201cto get shot in the face,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Collins\u2019 trial was set in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Case against Sierra Collins is dismissed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79000,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25571\/revisions\/79000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25571"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}