Lengthy investigation leads to arrest in April shooting outside Aurora bar

AURORA | Three men were arrested last month and are facing murder charges in connection with a double shooting outside an Aurora bar last April that left one man dead and another wounded.

Jovonte Jiles, 18, Christopher Williams, 21, and Daeshaun Howard, 19, were charged in mid-December with murder and other crimes stemming from the April 13, 2013, slaying of Christopher Bryant, 22. Bryant was gunned down and another man was shot in the leg and arm in front of Primo’s Bar near East Colfax Avenue and Chester Street.

According to an arrest affidavit filed against Jiles, he, Williams and Howard went to the bar that night with a woman. The woman with the trio was drunk and one of the men with her may have been mad because she danced with several men, including Bryant, according to the affidavit. While Bryant stood outside smoking a cigarette, the three men approached and at least two of them opened fire with pistols, killing Bryant and wounding his friend, according to police.

Many witnesses told police the bar was hosting a rap concert and birthday party that night and several witnesses said there were a few arguments throughout the evening between gang members, but none of the disputes became physical.

A few minutes before the shooting, police said the three suspects and the woman are seen in surveillance video leaving the bar and walking to a car, where the men grabbed something from the rear of the vehicle. The woman then ran south on Chester Street and the men approached a group of people smoking in front of the bar.

Investigators found bullet casings from two pistols at the scene, but it wasn’t clear from the affidavit if police believe there were two gunmen or three.

The lengthy arrest affidavit — 20 pages long — details an investigation that played out both online and in person with dozens of interviews with people who were in the bar that night. Some witnesses were reluctant to speak to police because they were scared for their safety.

Eventually, police spoke to a witness seen talking to one of the suspects on surveillance video. That man identified the suspect as Jiles, and from there police identified the other two men with him that night.

Detective Thomas Wilson, the lead investigator, wrote in the affidavit that police were steadily monitoring Facebook for possible clues about the case.

The victims’ family and friends were active online, too, police wrote, posting their theories on who might have pulled the trigger that night. Police said the victims’ friends and families speculated online that a group of known Aurora gang members were the gunmen, but investigators ruled those men out when the surveillance video showed they weren’t the shooters.

It was Jiles’ Facebook page that eventually led investigators to the woman seen dancing in the surveillance video.

After that woman was arrested in Arapahoe County on shoplifiting charges, police interviewed her and she confirmed she was there with Williams and two other men that night.

The woman said she was very drunk that night and in addition to drinking a few different liquors, she had also smoked marijuana. She told police she didn’t remember much of what she saw on the video, and at one point she went to the car and fell asleep.

Later, she said Williams and his two friends jumped in the car and sped off, not saying anything about a shooting. The woman said she also didn’t see anyone with guns.

Aurora police arrested Williams and Jiles in December. Howard was already in custody on an unrelated juvenile case.

All three are being held without bond in the Arapahoe County Jail and are due in court
Jan. 22.