By Michael Roberts, Thu., Jul. 22 2010 @ 3:05PM
Last November, the death of Brittney Brashers, a 22-year-old Air Force veteran, seemed like a tragic accident. She was supposedly at the wheel when she drunkenly crashed into two parked cars -- and while her passenger, Robert Walters, sustained only minor injuries, she was killed.
Now, however, Walters has been arrested in the incident. He's being charged with faking the accident to cover up his murder of Brashers, which is described in shockingly brutal detail throughout a document supporting the bust.
Robert Walters' arrest affidavit begins by recapping the accident. Then, a short time later, the narrative notes that Denver Police Department Detective Tony Bisgard, the document's affiant, learned "Ms. BRASHERS and Mr. WALTERS were in a relationship with each other and there was a history of domestic violence between the two."
Brittney Brashers.
That was the first red flag. And there were more. Bisgard subsequently discovered "that prior to the car crash, the victim, Ms. BRASHERS, had participated with other women in a photo shoot North of the crash site at a club, and that Robert WALTERS had been present for parts of the photo shoot." Walters offered vague confirmation of this report; according to the affidavit, he didn't know the specific location, but described it as a "strip club," and admitted to being "'sad' that she took her top off during the photo shoot."
Cut to December, when a friend of Brashers came forward to say she'd heard a phone message on the victim's phone in which Walters said he hated Brashers and wished she was dead. This report was subsequently confirmed when the message was retrieved from one of Brashers' phones.
A few days later, Bisgard reviewed a domestic violence report from the previous October in which Brashers accused Walters of threatening to make her crash her car. But with the medical examiner unable to definitively state that Brashers didn't die because of the car crash, the case remained in limbo until late March, when Bisgard spoke to Walters's estranged wife. Here's the account of that startling conversation from the affidavit:
She told Your Affiant that when Mr. ROBERTS [sic] got back to California in the days after the accident he told her that he killed Brittney then staged the car accident to get away with it. He said that hey were at a photo shoot and during the photo shoot she took her top off. Mr. WALTERS told [redacted] that he decided to killer her then. He told her that he and the victim were driving back to Colorado Springs on the highway. He and the victim were arguing about her taking her top off during the photo shoot. He told her that he punched the victim in the face then grabbed the steering wheel, forcing the car to exit the highway. He drove in an unknown area and parked the car. The victim let out a scream so he began to knee her in the face. He then stopped and could not believe that he assaulted her. He wanted to take her to the hospital, but knew that she would tell on him. He decided that he had to finish her. Wherever they were the car was now stuck in the snow. He got out of the car and began to push on the bumper. It is at that time that he realized his hands and the bumper were bloody. He told her that he then got back into the car and the victim was still breathing. He began to yell at her "Why won't you die, why won't you die?" He then got on top of her and using his forearms he began to push down on her throat to stop her breathing and attempted to break her neck. He then pushed her into [sic] back into the driver's seat and unclipped her seatbelt. He then drove to a dark residential street and accelerated the vehicle. He then swerved the steering wheel into the park [sic] cars. The impact caused the victim to hit the windshield. He then began to put on a show of screaming for help and crying out for people to help his girlfriend.
That may have been enough to justify Walters's arrest by itself. But there was also this:
Mrs. WALTERS told Your Affiant that he has confessed the murder to her several times since the incident and on several occasions she has been able to record him on her cellular telephone talking about killing the victim. He has tried to commit suicide on two occasions since the incident saying that he does not want to go to prison for the rest of his life.
The affidavit doesn't state if Walters's ex-wife was able to produce the recordings she mentioned. But it says the medical examiner who'd previously balked at pinning down a cause of death later determined that Brashers's injuries were consistent with the ex-wife's description of the incident.
Walters has now been arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
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