Ex sought for Aurora 18-year-old’s murder freed from jail 9 days earlier, had 4 prior DV cases

AURORA, Colo. – The 20-year-old man sought by police in the July 1 murder of his ex-girlfriend had been released from jail just nine days before he allegedly killed her, and she broke a permanent civil protection order against him to go visit him the night she was killed.

Those details, and a series of police reports showing that Arturo Garcia, 20, and his ex-girlfriend, Alexandrea “Ally” Raber, had been involved in several domestic violence incidents over the past year were released to Denver7 in police reports and arrest affidavits on Thursday.

They show that Garcia, who remains at large and wanted by authorities for Raber’s death, had police called on him at least four other times between October 2016 and July 2017 for domestic-violence related incidents.

The documents detail multiple instances in which Garcia allegedly choked, beat or threatened Raber and her family, and that he also tried to extort several Raber’s family members for money with nude photos of Raber, including her mother and grandmother, among others.

Police arrested Garcia on a domestic violence warrant in January for incidents that happened in October 2016, and when he got out of jail, he was accused in February of using the nude photos to get her to try and stop cooperating in the domestic violence case pending against Garcia.

Raber got a protection order against him after that incident, but Garcia violated that in early March, and was arrested for violating the order and other outstanding warrants for harassment ad posting a private image, though those charges were later dismissed.

But Raber obtained a permanent civil protection order against Garcia on March 9 saying that Garcia was to have no contact, without exception, with Raber. It also ordered Garcia to stay at least 100 yards away from Raber’s home, work and school, and said that he was not to contact her by phone or social media.

Later in March, on the 28th, Garcia was charged with a slew of felonies in Arapahoe County related to domestic violence, extortion, kidnapping, stalking, and assault allegations Raber and family members made against Garcia over the several months beforehand.

The criminal complaint for that case says that Garcia had smashed several of Raber’s phones, beat her up on multiple occasions during arguments, and threatened her life while strangling her. He also threatened her family several more times, the documents say.

But he entered into a plea agreement on May 15, agreeing to plead guilty to felony extortion and misdemeanor assault charges in exchange for the others being dropped.

A judge sentenced Garcia to 91 days in jail, though he got time served credit for 71 days on the assault charges. He was also placed on four years of probation for the extortion charge.

Garcia was released from jail on June 22.

Nine days later, on the evening of July 1, police say that Raber called a friend and asked her to take her to the Knight’s Inn, where Garcia’s probation officer had bought him a room to stay in.

The friend had agreed to tell Raber’s parents that she was meeting up with a different, made-up friend because her parents “would not have approved of Alexandrea meeting up with Arturo,” police wrote in Garcia’s arrest affidavit.

While the friend was taking Raber to the motel, the affidavit says that Raber talked to her friend about the prior domestic violence cases and specifically mentioned that Garcia had threatened to kill her in the past.

Still, the friend dropped Raber off at the Knight’s Inn around 6:15 p.m. on July 1.

The arrest affidavit for Garcia says that Raber texted her friend two hours later and asked to be picked up.

But when the friend got to the motel just before 10 p.m., Garcia came out of the room and told her that Raber had left to a nearby RTD station just minutes earlier.

But the friend drove around the area looking for Raber and didn’t find her. She called and texted Raber’s phone throughout the night and into the next morning, but never reached her friend.

The next morning, the friend called Raber’s mother, told her the truth about where Raber had been, and told her she was concerned.

Raber’s parents had a GPS tracking app on the teen girl’s phone and discovered it was still at the Knight’s Inn.

The friend drove back to the motel, where she found numerous police officers and discovered her friend had been found dead by a maid at the motel earlier that morning.

The friend and several of Raber’s family members interviewed with police, and officers obtained a warrant to search the hotel room later in the afternoon of July 2.

They found Raber dead with a purse strap partially around her neck. A check of surveillance cameras at the motel showed Garcia talking with the friend, and after the friend left, showed Garcia taking several things out of the room and throwing them in the dumpster.

Police checked the dumpster and found a pillow with blood on it and several official documents with Garcia’s name on them.

The next day, after compiling their evidence, past cases, and interviews with Raber’s friends and family, a judge issued a warrant on first-degree murder charges for Garcia’s arrest.

He remains at large Thursday.

Anyone with information on this case should contact Aurora police at 303-627-3278. Anonymous tips can also be made to Metro Denver Crime Stoppers by calling 720-913-7867. Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $2,000 for information that leads to an arrest.

Raber’s family posted information about funeral arrangements on Thursday.

The viewing will be held Saturday from 6:30-8:30 p.m., and services will be held Sunday at 10 a.m.—both at Horan & McConaty, located at 11150 E. Dartmouth Avenue in Aurora.