WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — Wheat Ridge police have identified a suspect in the November 2023 burglary of a jewelry store and the homicide of its owner, according to an arrest affidavit.
Inside Peter Damian Fine Jewelry & Antiques, investigators found three zip tie handcuffs looped together with a Latex glove in front of a safe where silver coins were stolen, the arrest affidavit said.
DNA from the flex cuffs found outside the safe matched that of Charles Robinson Shay, according to the affidavit.
Surveillance video showed a suspect pull a gun on jewelry store owner Peter Aguello and attempt to handcuff him, according to the affidavit. Aguello resisted and the suspect shot him three times.
Two people were reported leaving the store and getting into a 2006 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, witnesses told Wheat Ridge police.
A vehicle matching that description was reported stolen out of Glendale in October of 2023, according to the affidavit. The owner gave police pictures of the truck, and investigators determined it was the same vehicle seen leaving the scene of the robbery and murder.
Officers found the suspected vehicle on Dec. 1. 2023 in Centennial, Wheat Ridge police said. It was set on fire and heavily damaged. In the back seat of the truck, investigators found two hats that were partially burned, matching ones the suspects were wearing in surveillance videos, the affidavit read.
After reviewing street cameras in the area of the burned-out vehicle, investigators noticed another truck following it.
It belonged to a man who was dead, but records showed a relative named Shawnteen Hall and the truck's former owner were Facebook friends with Charles Shay, according to the affidavit. Investigators went to Shay’s address and found the pickup from the video. It was reported stolen to the Littleton Police Department on Dec. 4, 2023.
They attached a GPS on Shay’s vehicle. It showed the pickup at the jewelry shot on Dec. 24 and Dec. 26, according to the affidavit. On the 26th, the security alarm was triggered and the safes in the store were opened. They were empty and unlocked before the burglary on the 26th, the affidavit said.
Shay admitted to prying a door to the business open on the 26th, but he said he didn’t take anything because there wasn’t anything to take, according to the affidavit.
He was convicted for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute in 2004, motor vehicle theft in 2005, and identity theft in 2012, among other charges. Shay is also wanted on a felony warrant out of California for a stolen vehicle, Wheat Ridge police said.
