Carson soldier arrested in fatal shooting
A 22-year-old Fort Carson soldier was arrested Monday in connection with last weekend’s shooting death of a Widefield man during a botched drug deal, authorities said.
Anthony Marquez III was jailed without bond on suspicion of first-degree murder and firstdegree murder during a robbery.
Johnathan Henry Smith, 19, was killed last weekend after the shooter tried to steal his marijuana and cash, El Paso County sheriff’s officials said.
He was shot once Sunday evening in the chest while selling marijuana in a house he shared with his grandfather in the the 300 block of Quebec Street, El Paso County sheriff’s investigators said. The shooter fled.
Smith, Marquez and two others were in a basement bedroom during the drug deal when Marquez tried to rob Smith, investiga- tors said.
“He handed over the drugs, but not the cash,” said Bureau Chief Joe Breister, who oversees the investigations unit. “He had in excess of $600 on him.”
Smith, who was pronounced dead at Memorial Hospital, didn’t know Marquez, investigators said. An acquaintance of Marquez had bought drugs from Smith earlier in the day, Breister said.
People who went with Marquez to Smith’s house told investigators where to find him — at his girlfriend’s house in the Springs, according to court documents released Monday.
About 1:45 a.m. Monday, sheriff’s detectives drove by the girlfriend’s home in the 100 block of Arlen Street, near Pikes Peak Avenue and Circle Drive, and spotted the black sport utility vehicle with California license plates that witnesses described the shooter fleeing in.
Marquez was arrested outside the home about 8 a.m. without incident.
Smith’s death was the second homicide this year in unincorporated El Paso County.
Marquez was in the process of being medically discharged from the Army after being injured in Iraq, sheriff’s investigators said. He joined the Army in May 2003, arriving at Fort Carson last summer, Army officials said.
Marquez doesn’t have a criminal record in Colorado, according to court documents.
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