Aurora I-225 shooting suspect targeted victim after dating the same woman, affidavit says

A Honduran man accused of shooting and seriously wounding another driver on Interstate 225 in Aurora appeared to target the victim because the victim was dating the man’s ex-girlfriend, according to Aurora police.

Celin Villeda-Orellana, 38, is facing charges of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, menacing and illegal discharge of a firearm in the shooting on eastbound I-225 near East Sixth Avenue in the early hours of Oct. 18, the Aurora Police Department announced Friday.

All of the charges are felonies.

Villeda-Orellana was arrested on suspicion of federal weapons charges on Thursday after Aurora police pulled him over and searched his car as part of the shooting investigation.

Investigators believe he was making plans to flee the country, Chief Todd Chamberlain said at a news conference Friday, and Aurora police needed additional time to get an arrest warrant. Villeda-Orellana is currently in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

According to an arrest affidavit, Aurora police first responded to the crash on eastbound I-225 at 1:14 a.m. and found the 30-year-old driver of a white Ford Focus had crashed into the west highway barrier wall. The man appeared to have multiple gunshot wounds to his neck.

He was taken to the hospital and is still on a respirator with life-threatening injuries, Chamberlain said.

Another driver who witnessed the crash and called 911 told police he saw a dark-colored car pull up next to the Ford and heard a loud pop that he thought was a car backfiring. The Focus veered left, then turned sharply to the right and hit the highway barrier, according to the affidavit.

Detectives used traffic cameras to track the victim’s car and realized he was followed by a dark-colored Honda Pilot after leaving the house of a woman he was dating.

The Honda was registered to Villeda-Orellana at a home in the 10000 block of East Exposition Avenue.

Aurora investigators first contacted Villeda-Orellana outside his home on Tuesday, and he agreed to go to the police station and answer questions.

Villeda-Orellana told police he knew the woman the victim was dating — he allowed them look at his phone, and her name had hearts around it — but denied being in a relationship with her, according to the affidavit.

He initially told police he was at home asleep at the time of the shooting, but detectives looked at his Google Maps location data and found he was near the woman’s home around 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 17 and traveling near I-225 in the early hours of Oct. 18.

Villeda-Orellana then took his phone back from police, but agreed to give them his passcode, allowed them to search his apartment and gave a DNA sample.

Aurora police interviewed the woman who was dating the victim on Wednesday, and she told investigators she had dated Villeda-Orellana for several months before telling him she just wanted to be friends.

About three weeks ago, he showed up at her house when she was with the victim, and then showed up drunk at her workplace the next day, according to the affidavit.

Detectives searched Villeda-Orellana’s Honda after pulling him over near 11th Avenue and Havana Street on Thursday and found a 9mm shell cashing, a Girsan 9mm handgun under the driver’s seat and a Honduran passport, according to the affidavit.

He was arrested on federal weapons charges and was still in ICE custody on Friday. Aurora police are working to transfer him to the Arapahoe County Jail, agency officials said.

“This department has and always will be shoulder and shoulder with our federal partners. The impact that (Homeland Security Investigations) and ICE had on this event was pivotal,” Chamberlain said.