LAKEWOOD, Colo. — A Thornton woman faces more than a dozen charges after allegedly stealing a car, threatening victims with a stun gun and trying to escape police officers, according to an arrest affidavit.
The woman, who was identified as Cassandra Rosalie Trujillo, 32, of Thornton, was arrested the same day as the alleged crimes — Jan. 12.
Denver7 obtained an arrest affidavit for this case, which reveals more details about the multiple scenes, on Tuesday.
The victims will be identified below as Victim 1, Victim 2, and Victim 3 to protect their identities.
On Jan. 12, 2023, just after 2 p.m., an officer with the Lakewood Police Department responded to the Cobblestone Car Wash along W. Colfax Avenue after receiving a report of a carjacking. Dispatch told the officer that a woman stole a car and pointed a Taser at the vehicle owner before she drove away in the vehicle.
When the officer arrived at the car wash, he met with Victim 1, who said his red Subaru Ascent had been stolen from him. He said he had arrived at the car wash and saw an "incident" between two women, according to the affidavit. One of those women was later identified as Trujillo. Victim 1 said the other woman had pepper spray in her hand and was yelling that Trujillo was trying to steal her car.
Victim 1 left his car and approached the women as Trujillo sat down in the woman's driver's seat. She then got back up, pulled out a Taser, and chased Victim 1 away from the car, according to the affidavit. He said he ran around his car as she had the Taser out and activated. She then got into his driver's seat. Victim 1 said he tried to get her out — ripping her blue sweater in the process — but she escaped by driving through a barrier arm and then fled from the area.
At the car wash, the police officer spoke with witness Heather Cannon, who was parked a few spaces away from the altercation. She provided information that matched Victim 1's account.
"I'm glad nobody was actually hurt," Cannon told Denver7. "Nobody did get injured or did lose their life. I mean, that could have been unfortunately a result of that situation."
Isaiah Grimes, another witness, was vacuuming his car when he witnessed the incident.
Trujillo, in the stolen Subaru, hit Grimes's car.
"She reversed backwards and the door hit the plastic casing around my tail light and it completely shattered," Grimes told Denver7.
Police obtained surveillance video from the car wash showing Trujillo enter the premises, get into a physical altercation with the woman, get into Victim 1's vehicle and drive away, hitting a car on the way, according to the affidavit.
Around 2:38 p.m., a Lakewood officer responded to a menacing call at the Family Dollar Store at 95 S. Sheridan Boulevard. Based on the call and information available, the suspect was Trujillo and the vehicle she had was the stolen Subaru, according to the affidavit.
At the Family Dollar, police spoke with Victim 2, who said he was working in the back of the store when a woman came inside. He said she was holding an armful of what he believed was store merchandise and walked past the cash registers and toward the exit doors. Victim 2 said he confronted the woman, later identified as Trujillo, telling her, "Don't do it, just don't do it," according to the affidavit.
Victim 2 said Trujillo turned to face him and he noticed she was holding a stun gun. He said she pointed at him and demanded he back up. He said he did so and watched her open the passenger door of a red Subaru Ascent. As she drove away, Victim 2 took a photo of the vehicle and its license plate. He then called police.
Victim 2 pulled up surveillance footage for the responding officer, which clearly showed her face. It also showed her holding a stun gun in her right hand, according to the affidavit.
At 2:38 p.m. that day, another call for service came in at the Puff N Stuff located at 8460 W. Colfax Ave after a report came in of a robbery involving a suspect with a Taser. Dispatch told the responding officers that an employee was tased by a woman after she asked for money from the register. The woman then left the store in a red Subaru and headed east on Colfax, according to the affidavit.
When police arrived at the Puff N Stuff, they spoke with a woman who said the suspect had arrived at the store in a red Subaru. She told police that the suspect fumbled around the car, as if she did not know how to work it.
When the suspect entered the store, she asked for a pack of Marlboro Reds and then demanded cash from the cash register, according to the affidavit. The employee and a coworker, Victim 3, who were standing next to each other, both told the suspect no. The suspect, later identified as Trujillo, then took out an all-black stun gun, sparked it, and demanded the cash again. She swung the stun gun, hitting Victim 3's chest, according to the affidavit. As the suspect began to walk around to the back of the counter, Victim 3 grabbed the store's gun, told the other employee to call police.
Trujillo then left the store.
Victim 3 told police that the suspect was in a red Subaru and described her physical appearance and clothing.
At 2:50 p.m., an automated license plate reader captured the Subaru heading south on Wadsworth Boulevard. Three minutes later, an officer saw it on Wadsworth. He activated his car's siren and lights and followed the car. The suspect, Trujillo, made a U turn to go north on Wadsworth. She then entered the on-ramp for westbound 6th Avenue and shortly afterward, exited on the southbound Wadsworth ramp. The driver turned into a ditch, then got on the westbound 6th Avenue Frontage Road, then started driving north in the southbound lanes of Wadsworth.
Trujillo crossed into the northbound lanes, went through a stop sign and continued onto Reed and turned north. She then went west on 8th and north on Broadview, ignored a stop sign and continued speeding south toward the frontage road. She turned east on that road, reaching speeds of 60 mph and beyond, slowed at Harlan and turned north then east into an expanded driveway for a home on Harlan, according to the affidavit.
The driver had to stop at a closed gate and an officer pulled behind the Subaru. Trujillo then backed up into the officer's car — "she wasn't attempting to steer around it," the affidavit reads — which created some space between the two cars. She then backed into the officer's car a second time.
A second officer moved his patrol car to stop the Subaru and collided with it. He said he could see the suspect trying to drive, so he accelerated to keep the Subaru from moving. The Subaru was pushed off the south side of the roadway and onto a snow-covered area. She continued to try to accelerate and was able to get the car away from the officer trying to stop her, according to the affidavit.
However she then collided head-on with another officer and his patrol vehicle.
The responding officers got out of their cars with guns drawn to arrest Trujillo. While some officers kept their guns out, others tried to get her out of the vehicle. She put the car into reverse as officers worked to extract her, but it was lodged against bushes. Officers were not able to reach inside to turn it off. The car then began moving backward and officers could hear the engine revving. Believing that Trujillo would run the officers over to escape, an officer deployed his Taser and Trujillo stopped pressing on the gas, according to the affidavit.
At 2:59 p.m., Trujillo was in custody. She provided a false name, but her fingerprint identified her as Trujillo. She had two warrants out for her arrest — a Department of Corrections no bond warrant for menacing with a supplement of escape risk and an Adams County case involving speeding through a school zone.
She was transported to St. Anthony's Hospital for treatment and was then brought to JeffCo Jail. She faces charges of robbery, felony menacing, aggravated motor vehicle theft, third-degree assault, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, vehicle eluding, resisting arrest, obstruction of a police officer, criminal mischief, hit and run and failing to remain at the scene, and the two warrants.
