Man convicted of 1st-degree murder for killing wife

A man who crashed his SUV in western Colorado, then told emergency workers he had just killed his wife, has been convicted of first-degree murder.

The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent reports jurors found 47-year-old Arturo Navarrete-Portillo guilty Wednesday of killing 30-year-old Maria Carminda Portillo-Amaya with a machete. The jury also convicted him of child abuse because his then-6-year-old son was at the apartment when the killing happened.

Investigators say Navarrete-Portillo rear-ended a cattle truck outside of Carbondale on Feb. 16, 2015, and was being airlifted to a hospital when he told the medical helicopter crew that he had killed his wife.

Public defenders acknowledged Navarrete-Portillo killed his wife, but they said he was too drunk to have deliberated the slaying, a requirement for a first-degree murder conviction.

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Information from: Post Independent, http://www.postindependent.com/