Juan Jose Figueroa Jr. made his first remote appearance in Boulder District Court on Wednesday for charges related to the kidnapping and murder of a missing Longmont woman.
Figueroa, 32, was indicted by a grand jury on counts of first-degree murder after deliberation, felony murder and second-degree kidnapping in the disappearance and presumed death of Rita Guterriez-Garcia.
Figueroa appeared by video from prison, where he is currently serving an indeterminate sentence for a separate Boulder County sex assault case.
Boulder District Judge Thomas Mulvahill advised Figueroa of his rights in the case, as it was his first hearing on this case.
Because two of the charges are Class 1 felonies that carry a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors could have asked that Figueroa be held without bond and that a proof evident presumption great hearing be set to determine if there was enough evidence in the case to do so.
But Assistant District Attorney Katharina Booth said that she was fine with the $2 million bond another judge set for Figueroa following the indictment. Figueroa’s attorney Jenna Kruszka also declined to address bond, noting Figueroa is already in prison on a 93-year to life sentence.
Kruszka did ask Mulvahill if Figueroa could continue to appear virtually for eligible hearings. While Boulder County has opened for in-person hearings, Mulvahill said that due to continuing coronavirus and transportation issues at prisons and jails he would allow Figueroa to appear virtually for hearings that did not involve testimony or the presentation of evidence.
Figueroa is now set for an arraignment hearing on July 28, for which he was given permission to appear by video.
Gutierrez-Garcia has been missing since March 18, 2018, when she was celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with friends and family at bars in downtown Longmont and was last seen in a city parking lot behind 3’s Bar.
While no body has been recovered, police have said they presume Gutierrez-Garcia is dead.
Figeuroa was named as the primary suspect early on in the case, but with no body prosecutors were only able to present the case to a grand jury in April.
According to the grand jury indictment, Figueroa was arrested March 27, 2018, in Texas on a warrant for the Boulder County sexual assault case after he was stopped by Customs and Border Patrol agents as he was crossing back into the U.S. from Mexico.
When Texas officials told him the warrant was for sexual assault and that he was likely to be extradited, the indictment states Figueroa responded, “That’s the only warrant? That’s it? …Just sex assault? …Sweet, let’s get this over and done with so I can get my bond, get it posted.”
The indictment also states Figueroa told a cellmate that he had strangled Gutierrez-Garcia after punching her into unconsciousness after she called him a “weirdo.” The indictment states he said her body was in “an area not accessible to the public.”
A separate witness testified before a grand jury that Figueroa said he had buried Gutierrez-Garcia’s body and that “the only way anyone would find it is if police inserted a probe into his brain,” according to the indictment.
The indictment also states that investigators found DNA evidence that confirms Gutierrez-Garcia was in Figueroa’s pickup. Cellphone data from early March 18, 2018, also shows that her cellphone traveled the same path as the pickup until it was turned off at 3:10 a.m., just after Longmont Police dispatch received a hang-up 911 call at 3:07 a.m. Dispatchers tried calling back twice but got no answer.
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