AURORA, Colo. — An Aurora man accused of killing his common-law wife over the weekend told police he shot her in the head so she wouldn’t become homeless after he was fired from his job earlier this year, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Denver7 Tuesday.
Phil Archuleta, 60, called Aurora police late Sunday night to report he had fatally shot his common-law wife of 20 years inside their apartment on S. Ivory Circle in southeast Aurora. The shooting had occurred approximately 38 hours earlier, according to police.
An arrest affidavit unsealed in the case and obtained by Denver7 Tuesday revealed more details about the deadly shooting.
Archuleta, who called police from a nearby bus stop because he didn’t want his neighbors to see him being taken away in handcuffs, told responding officers he had been experiencing financial troubles and thought he and his wife were going to be homeless soon.
The man told police after he was taken into custody that he had been fired from his job in early May and knew he and his common-law wife could not live off her income alone. He also said he never told her he had been fired and continued leaving home for work as he normally would while he planned how he would kill her, according to the affidavit. The suspect told police he planned on living normally until he ran out of money and couldn’t pay rent.
“The next stop was going to be homeless. Wasn’t gonna do that to her, so I put her out of her misery,” Archuleta told police, adding he planned to also kill himself right after but could not bring himself to do it.
Archuleta “couldn't stand the thought of [his common-law wife] having to live on the streets, so, at approximately 9:30 AM on 07/05/25, he shot [her] two times in the head,” the affidavit states.
He told police he chose Saturday morning as the day of the shooting because he had to pay rent the day prior and had written a bad check after running out of money, according to the affidavit. The suspect told police he woke up before his wife that morning and heard her phone ringing with notifications, which he believed were coming from the bank to inform his wife that his check had bounced.
The man told police he thought he was lucky the notifications didn’t wake up his common-law wife, “because then he would have been forced to discuss the situation with her.”
“So I get up, put my shorts on, grabbed my gun, [vocally demonstrated the sound of two gunshots] and shot her in the head twice," Archuleta said.
When asked by police if there was a reason his “first and only idea” to solve their financial troubles was to kill his common-law wife, “Phil replied, ‘Nope,’ and then laughed,” the affidavit states.
Archuleta told police he couldn’t find another job because he was an “avid pot smoker” and it would take him 90 days to clear his system to pass a drug test.
“Phil saw no alternative to killing [his wife],” the affidavit states. When asked if he felt he and his wife could have worked through their financial struggles together if he had told her he was fired, Archuleta reportedly said, “Maybe.”
He told police he and his common-law wife got along well and the rarely argued. They also had not been in any fights recently, and his common-law wife had not done anything to wrong him.
“Phil explained that his motivation for killing [his common-law wife] was solely financial, and to avoid being homeless,” the affidavit states.
Archuleta said that other than his own mother, his common-law wife was the only person that cared about him but, “felt he needed to put her out of her misery,” arresting documents show.
“She might not agree with that, but it’s the way I seen it. I did what I did. Not proud of it, but I did it,” he told an officer, who asked him if that is what his common-law wife would have wanted. “No," he said.
He also told police he was depressed and suicidal, and remembered a conversation he had with his common-law wife about five years ago, when he bought the gun he allegedly used to kill his partner.
“She'd tell me don't go (don't kill himself), but then she said if you go, don't take me with you,” Archuleta said. “But I can't, I couldn't leave her homeless and on the streets because of my f-ups."
The victim had two children that lived in Colorado but both had long been estranged from their mother, arresting documents show. The woman also had family in Indiana, but Archuleta told police he never met any of his partner's family members in the 20 years they were together.
After he shot her twice in the head, according to the affidavit, Archuleta put two pillows over the woman’s head. He told police he sat there thinking about killing himself and believed he could survive being homeless “but couldn’t put [his common-law wife] in that position.”
At the scene of the crime, police found his wife on the bed of their bedroom covered by blankets as if she had been sleeping. She was found bleeding profusely from the head.
Police recovered a .40 caliber shell casing on the bed and a second .40 caliber casing nearby on the floor. There was a live round of .40 caliber ammunition sitting on a small plastic dresser or nightstand next to the bed and a .40 caliber handgun sitting on a table near the kitchen, the affidavit states.
A review of Archuleta’s past criminal history only revealed a prior arrest for contempt of court in 2004. He had very few contacts with law enforcement, according to the affidavit.
Archuleta now faces a first-degree murder charge.
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