AURORA | In the days and weeks before she was killed last week, Danielle Griego’s friends knew her boyfriend, Elmo Johnson, was often abusive.
Johnson’s sister told police the ex-convict regularly beat Griego and verbally abused her. And a few hours before Griego’s slaying, a friend told police Johnson pointed a gun at him, chased him down a north Aurora alley and then beat Griego.
Griego, 24, told police Johnson choked her late on Sept. 15, but she didn’t want to cooperate with investigators and police couldn’t find Johnson.
A few hours later, Griego was dead. Police found her body on a couch at the couple’s apartment on Lima Street and Johnson unconscious next to her, from an apparent drug overdose Sept. 16.
Johnson, 44, was later charged with first-degree murder in connection with Griego’s slaying and with felony menacing in connection with the incident involving Griego’s friend. He is being held without bond at the Arapahoe County Jail.
According to an arrest affidavit filed against Johnson, police first spoke to Griego around 11:30 p.m. Aug. 15 after her friend told police that Johnson beat Griego and threatened the friend with a pistol.
Griego told the officers that Johnson choked her and struck her, but she said she was scared and didn’t want to cooperate.
Aurora police spokesman Officer Frank Fania said officers couldn’t find Johnson that night. Even if they could, Fania said police didn’t think they had enough probable cause to arrest Johnson for menacing or for beating Griego at that point because Griego didn’t want to cooperate and the friend couldn’t positively identify Johnson.
Instead, the case was sent to a detective for further investigation, Fania said.
Police wrote in the affidavit, before that case landed on a detective’s desk, Johnson had already come back to the home and killed Griego.
Johnson’s sister, who lived in the same apartment, said she heard the initial confrontation between Johnson, Griego and Griego’s friend.
A few hours later, the sister said she was asleep when she heard Johnson and Griego argue again before hearing two gunshots. The sister and her husband didn’t go into the front room to check on Griego until the next morning when the sister saw Johnson asleep on the couch and a blanket balled up next to him.
The following afternoon, someone in the house found Griego dead under the blanket. She had been shot in the chest.
Police found Johnson laying on the couch with a pistol underneath him and rushed him to an area hospital.
Two days later, after he recovered from the overdose, police interviewed Johnson at the hospital. He denied killing Griego and said if he had, he would have been “long gone.”
According to state records, Johnson has a lengthy violent record that includes arrests on attempted murder, assault and weapons charges.
At the time of Griego’s slaying, Johnson was free on bond from a drug and weapons case in Adams County.
Is she ok and is the polic officer ok?
No she died and has been buried.
That was my dad