Witness lied to police for backup punter By PAT GRAHAM, AP Sports Writer

Witness lied to police for backup punter By PAT GRAHAM, AP Sports Writer
2 hours, 33 minutes ago



GREELEY, Colo. - A woman who dated a Northern Colorado backup punter accused of trying to kill the starter testified Monday she lied to police at his request.

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At first, Angela Vogel told police Mitch Cozad was with her at the time starter Rafael Mendoza was stabbed, but she said she quickly regretted that lie and 15 minutes later told investigators Cozad had left for part of the evening.

Cozad, of Wheatland, Wyo., is on trial on charges of attempted first-degree murder and second-degree assault in the Mendoza stabbing last Sept. 11. Police and prosecutors have alleged Cozad attacked Mendoza in a bid to get the starter's job.

Vogel said Cozad led her to believe that a player had been jumped by a group of people, and she didn't learn Mendoza had been stabbed until police interviewed her the next day.

"I didn't know what was going on," she said. "I was lying to the cops."

Mendoza was attacked in the parking lot of his apartment complex in Evans, a small town adjacent to Greeley. He was left with a deep gash in his kicking leg but later returned to the team. He testified he could not see who attacked him.

The trial entered its second week Monday. Prosecutors were expected to wrap up by Tuesday, and the case was expected to go to the jury later in the week.

Vogel said she and Cozad were together in the early part of the evening of Sept. 11, but he got a phone call and said he had to leave.

It wasn't clear when that call came, but at 10 p.m., Cozad called and they met up again, later going out for tacos, she said.

Police have said Mendoza was stabbed at about 9:30 p.m.

When police interviewed her on campus on Sept. 12, Vogel said: "I did what Mitch told me to, (told officers) that we were together, and I didn't say we went out for tacos."

Later, she said: "I went back to my dorm room and broke down. I was like, 'Oh my God, what did I just do?'"

She said she sought out police on her own to change her story and ran into detectives in the elevator on the way to meet with them. She said the decision to talk again was "kind of mutual."

"They were finding holes in my story, and I said 'I'm coming clean,'" she said.

During cross-examination by defense attorney Joseph Gavaldon, Vogel said she got scared when police accused her of being with Cozad on a crosstown trip to Mendoza's apartment the night of the stabbing.

"They started treating you as a suspect," Gavaldon said.

"Yes, they did," she replied.

Prosecutors showed a series of text messages that they said Cozad sent Vogel on Sept. 12 and 13. They included:

• "We were not apart between 8 and 12."

• "Please be strong for me did u say we got food?"

• "U can stop all of this."

When the prosecutor asked Vogel if Cozad ever spoke to her about stabbing someone, she said he once asked her, "What would you think would hurt the most, getting hit by a car, getting beat by a baseball bat or getting stabbed?"

"I thought it was very strange," she said.

Earlier Monday, Evans Police Detective George Roosevelt testified he found a black hooded sweat shirt in Cozad's dorm room hours after the stabbing. Roosevelt said he accompanied Cozad to his dorm room and looked around with Cozad's permission.

Mendoza has said his attacker was dressed in a black hooded sweat shirt cinched up around the face so only the eyes were visible.

Former detective Angela Quinn testified last week that another black hooded sweat shirt with white stripes on the sleeves was found in a later search of Cozad's room.

Leo Carrillo, who was Evans interim police chief at the time, described finding a black-handled knife with a 5-inch blade beside a road on Oct. 2. Carrillo has since retired.

Scott Pratt, a fingerprint specialist for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, testified he could not find any usable prints on it.