Marquez to enter plea Aug. 17 in fatal hit-and-run case

Co-defendant Ernesto Avila’s trial starts Aug. 22

BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Ruben Marquez, the alleged driver in the fatal hit-and-run outside a Golden bar, is expected to enter a plea 10 a.m. Aug. 17 at the Je erson County Courthouse.

e prosecutors anticipated a packed courtroom, saying the victims and their families plan to attend.

Marquez, 30, is facing rst-degree murder, vehicular homicide and multiple assault charges for allegedly driving a truck into a crowd of people outside e Rock Rest Lodge on Oct. 9.

Adrian Ponce, 26, was killed in the incident, and at least four others were injured, including Rock Rest employees.

Marquez was initially held at the Je co jail without bond. However, after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled defendants can’t be held without bond even in Class 1 felony cases, Judge Lindsay VanGilder set his bond at $500,000 cash in June.

Marquez appeared in custody at his Aug. 7 arraignment, where VanGilder accepted the defense’s motion to continue proceedings Aug. 17. She said she wanted to accept Marquez’s plea in the case before co-defendant Ernesto Avila’s trial started.

Avila, 26, pleaded not guilty to a felony accessory charge in February, and he’s scheduled for trial from Aug. 22-Sept. 1. He owns the truck involved in the hit-and-run, but Je co Sheri ’s O ce investigators believe he was a passenger when the truck hit the crowd.

The Oct. 9 incident

As VanGilder has summarized, the general facts of the case are that three cousins — Marquez, Avila and Jose Loera — went to e Rock Rest Lodge on Oct. 8.

At bar close on Oct. 9, Marquez’s group got into a verbal argument with Ponce’s group outside. e verbal confrontation escalated to a physical one, with one witness reporting that Ponce punched Marquez.

Avila’s truck was parked outside the Rock Rest, on roughly the southeast side of the building. Avila reportedly got into the truck, but it wouldn’t start. He left the keys inside, based on what he told investigators, and exited the vehicle.

As bar employees were outside trying to break up the ght, Avila got back in the truck with Marquez.

However, the prosecution has posited that Marquez was behind the wheel this time and intentionally drove into the crowd.

When describing the driver, witnesses gave a mix of descriptors, including bald, short, heavier-set Hispanic male wearing a white T-shirt with neck and face tattoos. ese match Marquez’s appearance on Oct. 9.

Marquez’s defense attorneys previously stressed the number of con icting eyewitness accounts, saying some gave a description of the driver that better matched Avila than Marquez.

However, the bar manager, who was within a few feet of the truck when it hit the crowd, picked Marquez out of a photo lineup and was 100% certain Marquez drove the truck into the crowd.

At Marquez’s bond hearing in June, Ponce’s family members asked VanGilder to set the highest bond possible, saying they’re completely heartbroken by Ponce’s death. His two children are now growing up without a father, and Ponce’s mother described how she now has to visit her son in the cemetery.

“He has destroyed my whole world,” Ponce’s mother said of Marquez. “… My heart is broken. My life is shattered.”

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