Two shot to death in Mesa; no suspect being sought

By Paul Shockley
Thursday, February 2, 2012

The Mesa County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday there was no “ongoing public safety concern” following the discovery of two adults shot dead inside a home near Mesa.

“Investigators have no belief there is an involved suspect at-large,” a Sheriff’s Department news release said.

Nobody was in custody, either, Sgt. Matt Lewis said.

The department stopped short of calling Thursday’s incident at 10389 48 Road, just west of Mesa, a suspected act of murder-suicide or double homicide.

Lewis said a 911 caller, a man who is a friend of the deceased persons, reported entering the home just before 8 a.m. and discovering a body. Still inside, and talking with 911 dispatchers, the man soon after reported finding a second body. Both were adults and had gunshot wounds, Lewis said.

The genders and identities of the deceased were not released Thursday. Lewis declined to answer a host of other questions, citing the early stages of an investigation.

‘OUR WORST FEAR’

After Grand Junction resident Stacey Wood got a call from a neighbor of the Mesa home Thursday morning, she was on the phone with her husband, Marty, soon after.

“I told him, ‘Our worst fear happened,’” she said.

The Woods own the home at 10389 48 Road, where the shootings happened. They rented it out for roughly the past two years to LaVon Hoffman, 52, according to Stacey Wood.

A neighbor of the Wood property called Thursday morning to report “Buck,” Hoffman’s estranged boyfriend, had shot and killed Hoffman before taking his own life, Wood said.

“She was very much in fear for her life,” Wood said. “(Hoffman) said she was afraid when she went out to feed her horses, he’d sneak in and kill her.”

Hoffman in January told police she had been in an intimate relationship for about four years with 47-year-old Robert Allen Matile, and they separated Dec. 5.

“Buck,” identified in court records as Matile, was arrested by the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department on suspicion of domestic violence against Hoffman, which happened Jan. 16 at 10389 48 Road.

Matile was booked at the Mesa County Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor harassment, third-degree assault, criminal mischief, menacing, obstruction of telephone service, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Hoffman told deputies she and Matile had argued about a series of topics, including her father, before the dispute turned to an intercom system sitting on the kitchen counter of the home, according to an arrest affidavit.

Hoffman said Matile accused her of allowing her daughter, who lives close to the 10389 48 Road home, to listen in on conversations using the intercom, the affidavit said. Matile smashed the device with his fist, she said, but only after Matile grabbed the intercom and acted like he was going to drop it into dish water, where she was cleaning dishes, potentially electrocuting her, the affidavit said.

The affidavit said Matile threatened to rape her children while forcing her to watch.

“LaVon advised me she believes Robert is very capable of harming her and her family based upon previous violence in their relationship,” the affidavit said.

Hoffman said when she went to dial her cellphone, Matile punched her in the face with a closed fist, the affidavit said.

“Hit me with closed fist in left ear & jaw, which bloodied my teeth & knock out my top dental parcel,” Hoffman wrote in a victim-impact statement.

She told officers Matile fled the house after she kicked him in the groin, the affidavit said. Deputies caught up with Matile that same day at another nearby home, where he denied hitting Hoffman. He later said he “may” have threatened her family and admitted only to “mutual pushing and shoving,” the affidavit said.

Arrested and booked at the Mesa County Jail, court records indicate Matile posted a $1,000 cash or surety bond. The bond paperwork was date-stamped Jan. 25.

Aside from a standard protection order prohibiting Matile from being at 10389 48 Road and prohibiting contact with Hoffman, her father or Hoffman’s daughter, County Court Judge Bruce Raaum ordered Matile be fitted with a Global Positioning System ankle monitor to keep tabs on his whereabouts, under the supervision of Mesa County Pre-Trial Services, according to records obtained by The Daily Sentinel.

He was restrained from using marijuana and was subject to random drug testing.

Matile listed his address in bond paperwork as the Homeward Bound of the Grand Valley homeless shelter, 2853 North Ave.

 

IN TOWN

Joanne Taylor, owner of The Treasure House, 10964 Colorado Highway 65, along Mesa’s main drag, said Hoffman stopped by her store around 5 p.m. Wednesday, after Hoffman said she had been hiding in fear for days at a relative’s home in the Grand Valley.

She bought a can of chicken creme soup, preparing for dinner on her first night back at her rental home off 48 Road, Taylor said.

“She said nobody had seen him (Matile), so she was thinking things would be OK,” Taylor said.

Hoffman’s daughter is a regular at the store, Taylor said. LaVon Hoffman also had a young granddaughter.

LaVon Hoffman formerly worked with rescue horses, but the single mother held several odd jobs, Taylor said.

“Like most of us up here, she was trying to survive,” Taylor said.

PRIOR INCIDENTS
Robert Matile’s only arrest in Colorado happened with the Jan. 16 domestic-violence case involving Hoffman, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.
In her victim statement to the Mesa County District Attorney’s office, Hoffman wrote the incident of Jan. 16 wasn’t the first by Matile’s hand.
When asked in a section, “Has the defendant ever hurt you physically before?” she wrote, “Yes.” How many times? “Multi.”
She circled the following words as actions by Matile: “shove, choke, bite, punch with fist, holding, threats, and preventing you from leaving.”
“Broke several items (personal),” she wrote.
Have police been called before regarding domestic violence? She responded, “Yes, by family members. No reports filed.”

‘TO WHOM IT CONCERNS’
In a handwritten appeal dated Jan. 20, LaVon Hoffman urged Mesa County’s justice system to consider the needs of her estranged ex-boyfriend. The letter was filed with the court.
“To Whom it Concerns, I am far from an expert in any of these situations. I’m trusting God to help guide the courts to make the right decisions with the charges facing Buck (Robert Matile). My only request is that Buck (Robert Matile) gets the professional help he deserves from classes and counseling that will help him continue in life with dignity & pride.
“Thank you.
“LaVon A. Hoffman.”