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Mirabal hearing under way?Greg Avery?The Daily Times-Call?12.18.1999BOULDER — A $1 million insurance payoff motivated Matthew Mirabal to?murder his 24-year-old wife Sept. 26, prosecutors suggested in court?Thursday.?In the 21-year-old's preliminary hearing, the prosecution revealed?much that has been unknown about the strangulation and decapitation of?Natalie Mirabal. The young mother was found dead off a dirt track in?Lefthand Canyon hours after her husband reported her missing from their?Longmont apartment early that Sunday morning.?Investigators arrested Matthew Mirabal on a first-degree murder?count Oct. 22 — the day before his birthday.?On the first day of a hearing to determine whether investigators?have enough evidence to take Mirabal to trial, prosecutors Trip DeMuth?and Kathy Delgado called witnesses who laid out the circumstantial?evidence of their case, capped by testimony that Mirabal applied three?months before the slaying to have his wife covered by a $1 million life?insurance policy that listed him as the sole beneficiary.?Mirabal also appeared to try to get a smaller, $250,000 life?insurance policy from the same company after the first application?appeared headed for rejection, DeMuth told district court Judge Daniel?Hale.?"He wanted $1 million and got impatient when it looked like he?wouldn't get it," DeMuth said.?Boulder County Sheriff's Detective Steven Cullen testified Mirabal?also had talked to an insurance agent and had reason to believe at the?time of the slaying that a temporary $250,000 policy covered Natalie?Mirabal while the couple's application was reviewed by Protective Life?Insurance.?Defense attorney Steve Jacobson pointed out it appeared as though?Matthew Mirabal sought to have life insurance policies cover both of?them after the Columbine High School shootings made them concerned?about what would happen to their infant daughter if one of them died.?Cullen testified detectives also found documentation suggesting Mirabal?asked about coverage for himself, though it was unclear whether he?applied.?Natalie Mirabal's younger brother, 15-year-old Nehemiah Vasquez,?testified as a defense witness, discussing what it was like living with?his sister and Matthew Mirabal at 180 S. Pratt Parkway since April.?While he never saw them in a physical confrontation, Vasquez said?Matthew Mirabal had a quick temper that flared if his sister hadn't?done laundry or washed dishes or spent too much time with their?Platteville Apostolic Church pastor, Troy Hancock.?The night of the murder, Vasquez went to Boulder with his sister;?his brother-in-law; Mirabal's brother Marcus and his wife, Lisa; and?another couple from their church.?Matthew Mirabal reported his wife missing to Longmont police at?around 4:10 a.m., about 4 hours after the group returned from Boulder,?saying she went to the Safeway store two blocks from their home just?after midnight but never came home. He assembled his brother and?members of his church to search, and quickly found her empty car in the?grocery store parking lot.?Officer Matthew Cage, the first Longmont police officer to contact?Mirabal about his wife's apparent vanishing, testified Thursday that?Mirabal seemed nervous, had trouble speaking and was visibly shaking as?they talked in the Safeway parking lot around 4:20 a.m.?The officer looked at Natalie Mirabal's maroon Toyota Corolla in the?Safeway parking lot and noticed it was parked farther from the front?door than expected for an empty parking lot and was pointed the?opposite way than one would expect for somebody driving from Mirabal's?home. The car also had large fresh scratches on its passenger side that?looked to have been made by driving through bushes or tree branches,?and it had a new-looking dent on its front bumper, Cage said.?Mirabal couldn't say whether the scratches had been there before?that night, Cage testified. He got the impression Mirabal hadn't seen?the scratches until they were pointed out, and he began to feel?something about Mirabal's behavior didn't make sense, Cage testified.?"I felt he was hiding something from me," Cage said.?Vasquez later testified the car was undamaged earlier in the night,?and his brother-in-law was meticulous about keeping his cars in new?condition, Vasquez said.?Tire prints taken in Lefthand Canyon matched the Corolla, lead?sheriff's Detective Steve Ainsworth testified, suggesting it was the?vehicle that took Natalie Mirabal to Lefthand Canyon after she was?killed.?Vasquez also expressed doubt about his brother-in-law's story that?Natalie went to Safeway to pick up items for a church potluck the next?evening. He was also expected to bring food to the function — something?Natalie knew — and Vasquez believed his sister would have included him?in a trip to the grocery store, or at least told him she was going that?night.?"She never mentioned it to me," Vasquez said, observing they passed?grocery stores returning from Boulder that night but she never?mentioned needing to go.?Jacobson called Vasquez's testimony into question, asking the teen?how he felt about his brother-in-law since the arrest.?"You now think maybe Matthew did this," Jacobson asked.?"Yeah," Vasquez replied, but added he couldn't be sure.?For most of the day, Mirabal sat attentive, taking notes in the?hearing, but he cried as Boulder County Coroner Dr. John Meyer?described the injuries Natalie Mirabal suffered.?The prosecution also submitted testimony Thursday about Mirabal's?apparent visits to his brother's home on Meadow Drive while his brother?was at work but his wife was home.?A next-door neighbor told detectives that several times he saw?Matthew Mirabal being let into Marcus Mirabal's apartment after Marcus?left for work, and then leaving about two hours later.?A 71-year-old woman who lives a couple of blocks away on a different?street testified she saw a man she believed to be Matthew Mirabal park?a white Ford truck — the same kind Mirabal owns — on the street in?front of her house about a dozen times in late February and early?March, twice being dropped off back at the truck by a woman.?"It always came about 8:15 or before 9:45. It always left before?noon. Once in a great while it'd be there in the afternoon, but never?on weekends," Rosella Jones said.?She reported the truck to police, but got no response. Eventually,?it stopped turning up, Jones said, but she later realized its possible?connection to the murder case after seeing Matthew Mirabal's photograph?in this newspaper following his arrest.?How the testimony fits into the prosecution's case was not clear?Thursday, but the implications are of the sort that has prompted?Mirabal family members and church friends to blast sheriff's?investigators for treating them and Matthew Mirabal unfairly and?ignoring other potential leads.?Jacobson took up the argument Thursday, asking Ainsworth to explain?why detectives spent so little time looking into a string of possible?abduction attempts reported near grocery stores in Broomfield and?Longmont, including one reported at a Longmont King Soopers just hours?before Natalie Mirabal's disappearance. He also asked why detectives?discounted a Safeway employee's recollection of seeing a car similar to?Natalie Mirabal's in the store parking lot around 1 a.m. the night of?the murder.?"That'd be pretty strong evidence she did go to Safeway to get some?food and something bad happened, wouldn't it?" Jacobson asked.?He asked Hale to review Matthew Mirabal's 911 call to Longmont?police, and the videotape of his interrogation shortly after her body?was found, and judge for himself if Mirabal was treated fairly.?Hale promised to review the material before the hearing reconvenes?Monday morning.?It is scheduled to feature lengthy testimony from sheriff's?Detective Tony Matthews, who handled the physical evidence?investigators believe ties Mirabal to his wife's murder.? ................
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