BY DAVID GRANT LONG

Arrest warrants were issued Monday for 23-year-old Mathew David Gray in connection with Thursday’s shooting death of Kenneth Wayne Dugan III, according to a news release issued Monday by the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Department.

However, the sheriff’s office, which had called a press conference for Monday morning and then abruptly canceled it, didn’t return phone calls seeking additional information and the warrants, which contain details supporting the potential charges against Gray, were sealed by District Judge Sharon Hansen at the request of District Attorney Mike Green.

"It’s an ongoing investigation and there is information in them that would not help the investigation if it was released," Green said yesterday, refusing to provide even the name or names of the people or the charges until the sheriff’s office revealed them in a brief press release later in the afternoon.

"We agreed that the sheriff would handle the releases on this," Green said. "I don’t want to say something different than the sheriff says."

A separate case file is usually opened in district court for each suspect, so it is likely that police are seeking more than one person in connection with Dugan’s murder, said Steve Zansberg, a media attorney based in Denver.

The sheriff’s release did not say what criminal offenses are alleged in the warrants, and the district court clerk also refused to provide this information, citing Hansen’s order sealing the warrants. The sheriff’s office also refused to provide any additional information, including Gray’s description, his possible whereabouts or what danger he might represent to the public.

"A District Judge can seal any portion of a criminal court file if she finds that the sealing is necessary to protect a compelling state interest, which in this case appears to be the concern that publishing the person’s name would cause he or she to flee the jurisdiction and avoid capture," Zansberg said.

Dugan, 22, died of a gunshot wound to the chest inflicted at the residence of ex-wife Lindy Kennedy Dugan shortly after midnight on Feb. 10, according to an affidavit filed last week by Detective Lt. Kalvin Boggs requesting a search warrant for the residence. Dugan was pronounced dead at Southwest Memorial Hospital after being driven there by friends who had accompanied him to the residence, the affidavit said.

After unsuccessfully seeking witnesses all day Friday, police were observed conducting numerous traffic stops in various parts of Cortez throughout Friday evening, but no additional information could be obtained about this operation.

Although no eyewitnesses to the actual shooting were mentioned in Boggs’ affidavit, it recounted much of the circumstances leading up to the fatal incident.

Jeff Libertus told Boggs that he had been standing next to the victim during a general melee in the yard when a woman later identified as Shanna Dawn Fletcher, 22, came to the door of a camp trailer and Dugan told her to pack her things and leave.

"Where’s my (expletive) gun!" Fletcher allegedly said, according to Libertus, who explained that his attention was momentarily diverted. Libertus said he hadn’t actually seen Dugan shot, but said he heard a gunshot and then felt the victim slump against him.

Basil Hougland, who accompanied Dugan to Lindy Kennedy Dugan’s trailer and gave a detailed statement to police, said Monday that the victim hadn’t been involved in any of the physical fighting that broke out as Dugan and his friends tried to evict Doug Hackett, Kennedy Dugan’s roommate.

Hougland also emphatically denied a statement by the sheriff’s office that a party had been in progress.

"Misty (Blackmore) and Lindy were waiting in their truck because they figured there was going to be trouble," Hougland said. "That’s when we showed up and told them they (Hackett and his friends) were going to have to leave —there was no party about it —it was basically trying to keep those girls safe because all those guys were out there."

Hougland said that Dugan had told Fletcher to leave because she had moved to the residence at Hackett’s invitation.

"We figured since we’re going to roust these guys out, we’ll roust her out, because nobody liked her there except Doug," Hougland said.

Apparently Hackett and two of his friends had been corralled outside by Hougland and Dugan’s other supporters just before the shooting occurred.

"All three of them, we’re sitting by the pickup and we told them, ‘Why don’t you just get your (expletive) and get the hell out of here cause nobody wants you here,’ is basically how we put it."

Then Hougland went back inside the trailer to oust one more of Hackett’s friends, he explained, just before the fatal shot was fired.

"When I went around front, that’s when ... Shanna comes out and starts popping off, and that’s when it went from there," he said.

"Basically, what it all boils down to is a bunch of (expletive) —my brother getting killed and it didn’t have to happen that way."