Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller released the identity of the man who fatally was stabbed early Friday morning.
Andrew Goodwin, 21, of Cañon City was stabbed in the chest just before 2 a.m. Friday in the 900 block of Greenwood Avenue. He was transported to St. Thomas More Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased. An autopsy is set for Tuesday, Keller said.
Dustin Mitchell, 33, has been arrested in connection with the murder. He is being held in the Fremont County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, menacing, violation of protection order, domestic violence and third-degree assault.
According to court records, Mitchell was arrested for assault, domestic violence, criminal mischief, menacing and violation of a restraining order in two separate cases at the Greenwood Avenue address in October and in April.
In the first incident, he allegedly put a knife to his girlfriend’s throat and said, “I’ll kill you,” during an altercation, according to a statement of probable cause. The girlfriend, whose name will not be printed because she is an alleged victim of domestic violence, told police that Mitchell is an alcoholic but had been sober for six months prior to his relapse. She said he can become “very violent” and during this altercation, he destroyed their apartment.
In addition to allegedly breaking a television, lamp, vase, the alleged victim’s phone and a telescope, he allegedly also threw her up against a table and punched her in the ribs.
“Dustin took a knife and held it to my throat,” she told authorities, according to the statement. “…When he drinks, he flips. … He just gets violent and flips.”
She said Mitchell said he didn’t want to live anymore and began to cut his leg before allegedly threatening to kill her.
Mitchell, who worked as a butcher at a local grocery store, also is a veteran, having been deployed three times to Afghanistan, according to the affidavit.
“Talk to my boss at work,” Mitchell told authorities. “He’s like, ‘I’m worried about you cause your PTSD kicks in and you act like a monster.'”
In a separate incident, Mitchell was arrested for violation of a protection order in April after witnesses in the apartment building called the police and told them that they needed to “come get his girlfriend because he had hit her.”
“We got (the victim) outside and she told me (Mitchell) hit her in the face and he hit her,” one witness wrote in a statement to police. “She had marks on her face under her eye. She was extremely terrified.”
The previously issued restraining order prohibited Mitchell not only from assaulting the alleged victim but also from consuming alcohol.
Mitchell was transported to jail where he blew a .243 alcohol level.
Mitchell is slated to appear in court for bond review on the murder charge July 13.