Killer in AutoZone shooting: 'I'm the bad guy here'

When Edward Thomas Coffey Jr., 47, walked into court Friday morning, he knew he would spend the rest of his life in prison.

He intended to admit that on July 27 he had shot two men, critically wounding one and killing the second. And that he had forced the dead man’s friend to drive him away from the bloody scene.

“There is no way that you’ll ever be a free man again. Do you understand that?” District Judge Scott Sells asked Coffey before accepting a guilty plea.

“Yes sir, I do,” Coffey said.

“I’m the bad guy here. I readily admit that I did it.”

Six months to the day after he killed Joaquin Paniagua, Coffey, also known as Ernest Schmidt,  pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Another 112 years was tacked on to the sentence for the crimes of second-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault, and aggravated robbery.

Coffey’s public defender, Cindy Hyatt, told the court that when she met Coffey in August he was prepared to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

On the July evening, Coffey went to an AutoZone store at Palmer Park Boulevard and Powers Boulevard with the intention of robbing a customer in the parking lot. He desperately needed $500 for rent, and his first victim was Donald LaRoe.

When LaRoe resisted, Coffey shot him twice. Paniagua was coming to the assistance of LaRoe when he was shot and killed, an arrest warrant said.

Coffey then jumped into the car Paniagua had gotten out of and made Jose Garcia drive away. Garcia later was released unharmed.

Coffey was arrested by Colorado Springs police on Aug. 1. Two women, his wife, Dawn Morgan, and Frani Olivas, have been charged with accessory to first-degree murder.

Coffey’s plea and sentencing was attended by LaRoe’s wife and three daughters; LaRoe did not want to attend, prosecutors said. A Spanish interpreter translated for Paniagua’s family, who joined the court by phone from El Salvador.

LaRoe, his wife, and daughters presented written statements, only two of which were read aloud. In one, a daughter described her horror when she saw her father clinging to life in a hospital bed, staples in his head and dried blood on his body.

Prosecutors said LaRoe had organs removed after the shooting, but did not detail the extent of his injuries.

Paniagua’s sister, Lorena Villegeas in El Salvador spoke by phone, her voice choked by sobs. An interpreter conveyed her relief that Coffey faces life imprisonment. She told the court that Paniagua, an illegal immigrant, was an irreplaceable financial support for his wife and three children in South America. He was the only son in a family with five daughters.

The third victim, Jose Garcia, Paniagua’s friend and also an illegal immigrant, is in a federal prison awaiting deportation, prosecutors said.

Hyatt told the court that Coffey had a disturbed childhood, in which he was encouraged by his father to do whatever it took to survive. That meant stealing food to eat before he was 10 years old, Hyatt said. Coffey became a career thief, with criminal records in multiple states. He was on parole after a 12-year prison stint in the Colorado Department of Corrections when he killed Paniagua and wounded LaRoe.

Homeless and desperate for cash, Coffey tried to kill himself the night before the shooting, Hyatt said. Detectives later found a mis-fired cartridge from Coffey’s gun in Morgan’s purse. He said he always carried the gun.

As he faced the possibility of life in prison, Coffey was straightforward. He once corrected the judge’s pronunciation of “Paniagua,” and delivered his statements of guilt in simple, frank terms.

His final statements to the court before sentencing were passionate and choked with emotion. His knew that his crimes were “repugnant in the eyes of the law,” he said, and added that he carries “a heavy burden of sorrow and shame” in his heart.

He does not expect to be forgiven, nor can he forgive himself, he told the LaRoe family.
He said that in LaRoe’s letter to the court, which was not read aloud, LaRoe said he would “be happy to push the button that would execute me (Coffey).” Coffey assured the LaRoes that his fate, life imprisonment, was worse than death.

Coffey waxed philosophical in his statements, wondering how he had become a murderer. He became a “product of the system” after 12 years in prison, he said.

Nearly sobbing, he also spoke of the night he put his .22 caliber gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

“It went click. It didn’t fire. I didn’t have the nerve to do it again,” he said.

“It was a good gun. It never failed, before or after. I don’t know why. Maybe I was supposed to go to prison, instead of die,” he said.

“A disposition is about to be made in this case, and I’m about he be disposed of.”

After he pronounced Coffey’s sentence, Judge Sells looked him straight in the eye.

“You’re a cold blooded killer,” he told Coffey. “You have forfeited your right to live free in society.”

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