BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — The suspect accused of fatally shooting a woman whose body was found near a trailhead west of Boulder said she fired at him first, and that his fiancée, friend, and friend's girlfriend helped him cover up the homicide, according to the arrest affidavits of the four people arrested in connection with this case.
On Wednesday morning, Denver7 obtained the affidavits, which revealed more details about the case, victim, and suspects.
According to those documents, on July 24 around 9:52 a.m., a person called 911 to report a dead person near the Realization Point trailhead, which is along the 3400 block of Flagstaff Road. The caller said the deceased woman was not responsive and had blood on her face.
A deputy with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office responded to the trailhead and met with the 911 caller. She led the deputy to the body, which the deputy said "was obviously deceased," according to the affidavits.
The deceased woman was on her back with both arms out to her side and both legs bent at her knees and tucked under her. Her head was pointed toward the parking lot and there were possible drag marks on the ground leading from the parking lot over the trail to the body, according to the affidavits. She was wearing a white tank top, blue jeans and had dried blood on her face and hair. No weapons were found at the scene.
Nobody in the area said they had seen anything suspicious.
Deputies found blood marks on rocks down a small hill from the south parking lot leading toward where the woman's body was found, according to the affidavits.
The authorities then interviewed the 911 caller and her husband at the scene. They said they had arrived at the trailhead around 7:40 a.m. and hiked up the Tenderfoot Trail and the Chapman Trail. At 9:50 a.m., they returned to the parking lot. The man went back to the wooded area to use the bathroom when he noticed the deceased woman, who was downhill of the parking lot. He reported she appeared to be dead and looked bloated, according to the affidavits. He went back to the parking lot and told his wife, who called 911.
After this interview, personnel from the Boulder County Coroner's Office arrived at the trailhead and examined the woman's body. They noted multiple cigarette burns on her neck, belly, arms and abrasions on her arms and legs. She seemed to have severe trauma to the back of her skull. They found a plastic baggie with suspect methamphetamine in her right back pocket, according to the affidavits.
Her body was brought to the coroner's office.
Investigators scouring the scene found a spent 9mm shell casing.
The following day, July 25, the coroner's office finished an autopsy, which found, in addition to the above injuries, fingernail scratch marks on her chest and a bullet wound above her left ear.
She was identified as Alexis Alyssa Baca.
Based on their investigation, authorities found Baca had last interacted with law enforcement on July 20, when a Colorado State Patrol trooper stopped her and another person while they were driving. Baca was the passenger. The driver, who has not been identified, was arrested on outstanding warrants and parole violations, and was transported to the Morgan County Jail. The vehicle was released to Baca, according to the affidavits.
Detectives with Boulder County went to the jail to talk with the previously arrested driver. The driver said Baca was a prostitute whom he met in New Mexico, and she had been joining him while he drove up to Montana to purchase a motorcycle, according to the affidavits. He started the journey on July 18, he told the detectives. He said he gave Baca his cell phone to use while he was in custody, and also told her that he had about $20,000 in cash under the front seat of his car, along with two handguns. He said he told Baca to stay safe and wait in the area until he could bond out.
With details about his car, investigators began looking through surveillance cameras in Boulder and noticed the car at several intersections, including Baseline Road and 9th Street in Boulder, which leads up to Flagstaff Road. Investigators also noted other vehicles that were spotted going through the same intersections around the same time. Notably, one was a 2008 white Ford F250 with New Mexico plates, which sometimes traveled through the same intersections within seconds of Baca's car, according to the affidavits.
Authorities learned the Ford F250 was registered to Jaime Alonso Moore, 31, of Las Cruces, New Mexico. According to Baca's expired New Mexico driver's license, she also lived in Las Cruces, according to the documents.
Two Boulder County detectives drove to Las Cruces to try to find Moore and inquire about his truck being in Boulder County and to possibly seize it.
During this visit, the detectives spoke with Baca's mother over the phone, and she said her daughter had called her on July 23 saying she was stuck in Colorado and wasn't sure how she would make it back home, according to the affidavits. The mother told Baca that "she gets herself into these situations and that she does not have time to deal with this situation," the affidavit reads.
Along with the Las Cruces Police Department, the Boulder County detectives reviewed Moore's local police reports and learned he was "a known associate" of Baca. The two Boulder County detectives and two officers with the Las Cruces Police Department drove around the town to try to find Moore and ended up locating the white Ford F250 parked at his home, according to the affidavits.
The Boulder County detective, who was driving, pulled a U-turn and parked down the street to come up with a plan. At this same time, a person in the Ford F250 drove away from the property. The two Las Cruces police officers called in an officer to stop the vehicle.
Once the vehicle had been stopped, authorities determined Moore was the driver and his fiancée, Ashley Provine, 18, was the passenger, according to the affidavits. They were told to exit the vehicle and were then separated for interviews. During this traffic stop, authorities found a loaded AK-47-style rifle with a folding stock, a silver 1911-style loaded semi-automatic handgun and a small, tan military-style bag.
In the interview with Provine, she told authorities she, Moore, and a man named Cody Hobirk had driven up to Colorado to help Baca, who knew Moore and Hobirk. Provine said Baca had called Hobirk for help returning to New Mexico. The trio rode north in Moore's Ford F250 and met with Baca at a hotel. Provine said she was not familiar with the area. At some point in that conversation, Baca told Moore and Hobirk about the money in the car, and they instructed her to follow them as they drove into the mountains and then pulled off into a parking lot. Provine said she believed Baca was high on heroin at this time, according to the affidavits.
When they reached the parking lot, Moore told Provine to "take a long walk and to not come back until he called her," she told authorities. She did so and when she returned, Baca was gone, Hobirk got into her car, and Moore and Provine got into Moore's Ford F250. Provine said Hobirk parked Baca's car in a residential area and Moore told him to get rid of the guns before abandoning the car, according to the affidavits.
The trio then got into the Ford, drove to a hotel for the night, and then headed back to Las Cruces. Provine said they had arrived a few days prior.
In Moore's interview with detectives, he also stated that Baca had called Hobirk for help returning to New Mexico. Baca had agreed to pay $2,000 for the return trip, Moore said.
Moore said on July 23, he, Provine, Hobirk, and Hobirk's girlfriend, Elizabeth Nicole Griffin, got into the Ford F250 to drive to Colorado. They found Baca at a Fort Morgan hotel. When they met up, Moore said "they observed that she was high on methamphetamine and blue pills" and he said she was "difficult to handle," the affidavits read. She didn't seem to know if she wanted to return to New Mexico, Moore said.
After several hours, they left the hotel and drove to Boulder. Moore said Baca was driving "erratically and dangerously" as she led them up into the mountains west of Boulder., according to the affidavits. Moore said she didn't seem to know where she was going, so at some point, he pulled ahead of her and turned into a parking area. Baca followed.
Moore said he walked up to her car and noticed she was still in the driver's seat and had a gun in her hand. She then "fired a shot at him" and Moore said "he grabbed his 9-millimeter pistol that he always carries from his waistband and fired a shot back at Alexis which struck her in the head," according to the affidavits.
In the interview, Moore openly admitted her had shot and killed Baca.
Moore and Hobirk tried to get her body out of the car — they both got her blood on them — and put her on the hillside, where she was found the following morning.
Moore said Hobirk got into the car Baca had been driving and the group went back down the mountainside. They returned later to ensure they had not left any items, he said, but saw a person with a flashlight around Baca's body, so left the area. They stayed the night in a hotel and drove both cars to Breckenridge the following day, where they went through a car wash, according to the affidavits.
Provine and Griffin helped throw away items from inside the car and wiped down door handles, the documents read.
Moore said the car had about $6,000, 5,000 pills, handguns and two laptops inside. They took these items and left the car where it would be towed, he said. On their way back to New Mexico, they tossed the two firearms into the wilderness in random places, according to the affidavits. Hobirk was setting up a way to get rid of the pills in New Mexico, Moore said.
Once they arrived back home, Moore gave the $6,000 to friends, he said.
During this interview, Moore also added that Hobirk had suggested that the group should rob Baca.
After these two interviews at the traffic stop, both Moore and Provine was placed in custody.
Later that same evening, officers with the Las Cruces Police Department located and arrested Hobirk.
During his subsequent interview, Hobirk said Moore was the one who wanted to kill and rob Baca and that he had coerced Baca to follow him into the mountains under the false pretense that he knew where Baca could sell the drugs from the car she was driving. Once they were far enough away from homes, Moore shot Baca, Hobirk said. He said he only heard one gunshot, according to the affidavits.
Hobirk told authorities that he helped move Baca's body and that Provine and Griffin had helped clean the car.
He also provided Griffin's date of birth, which helped authorities determine where she lived. She was arrested on Monday.
The suspects in this case face the following charges:
- Jaime Alonso Moore, 31
- First-degree murder
- Second-degree murder
- Aggravated robbery
- Cody Lee Hobirk, 43
- Second-degree murder
- Aggravated robbery
- Tampering with physical evidence
- Ashley Lynn Provine, 18
- Accessory in first-degree murder
- Accessory in second-degree murder
- Accessory in aggravated robbery
- Tampering with physical evidence
- Elizabeth ("Lizzie") Nicole Griffin, 23
- Accessory in first-degree murder
- Accessory in second-degree murder
- Accessory in aggravated robbery
- Tampering with physical evidence
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is involved in this investigation.
Anybody with information on this case is asked to call the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 303-441-3674 or email BCSOtips@bouldercounty.org.