Court records reveal what led to a deadly shooting of a driver near Garden of the Gods road

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - New court documents explain the chain of events that left a 24-year-old man dead while driving his truck in Colorado Springs.

Just before 1:45 a.m. on August 26 of this year, Colorado Springs Police arrived to find a truck crashed into a tree along North Chestnut Street. The driver of that vehicle, later identified as 24-year-old Vidal Juan Vigil, was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head.

RELATED: Colorado Springs PD makes arrest in August homicide on North Chestnut Street

A suspect later identified as Michael Gilliam was arrested by police for First Degree Murder, and two counts of Attempted 1st Degree Murder, in connection to the shooting of that driver and the truck, which KRDO13 has now learned, had two passengers in it.

Those passengers explain to police in new court records, what exactly happened that led to the deadly shooting.

18-year-old Jayda Salazar, said to be a girlfriend of the victim Vigil, said she was inside the 1973 Chevrolet Silverado truck, when Vigil was shot. Alongside them in the truck was 50-year-old Pablo Martinez.

Salazar says that she was in the parking lot of the Days Inn along Rusina Road, just off Garden of the Gods road that morning, and saw Martinez getting into an argument with a guy named Gilliam, who was later determined to be the suspect Michael Gilliam.

She says that at one point, Pablo walked toward Gilliam with one of his hands in a backpack, and got closer to Gilliam in a fighting stance. Salazar says that Martinez picked took a rock and threw it at Gilliam, who returned by throwing a rock back at him. She said neither of the men were hit by the rocks.

It was then that Gilliam left the parking lot in a gold-colored sedan, identified by police as a 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis.

Salazar said that not long after, she, Vigil, and Martinez then drove in Vigil's Chevy truck out of the parking lot. It was during their drive Salazar says she saw Gilliam's vehicle was parked on the side of the road, and as they passed it, she noticed the car then started following them.

That's when Martinez told Salazar to get her head down inside the truck. Jayda says she didn’t see anything, but after that heard five to six gunshots.

Salazar says that she didn’t even have time to look back at Vidal, as she and Pablo jumped out of the truck to get to safety.

Martinez told police a similar story. He said that he, Salazar, and Gilliam were hanging out in the area of Rusina Rd and Elkton Drive, where the Days Inn is located, and said that there was no disturbance, but later did concede that rocks were thrown, however, he did not throw one back at Gilliam.

He said that the group of the three of them were then driving behind Gilliam in his own vehicle, who then began driving erratically in front of Vigil's truck. Martinez said Gilliam was turning into their truck, which eventually forced Vidal to stop. Martinez said that Gilliam then reversed his vehicle, and that’s when he heard gunshots fired from Gilliam's car.

Martinez said he saw Vidal get hit by a shot, and the truck continued driving until hitting a tree on the side of the road. Martinez told a detective that he could positively identify Gilliam with 120% certainty. Salazar was also able to pick Gilliam out of a lineup.

Martinez says that Gilliam had shown him AR-15-style firearms before, and would often have a handgun on him as well. Martinez was pretty certain that Gilliam used an AR-15 to shoot and kill Vidal in the truck that morning.

Martinez denied ever having produced a gun of his own in the events leading up to the shooting.

Police asked Martinez why he ran from the scene, accoriding to photos snapped from cameras near the scene. He told detectives that he feared that people he knew would be targeted back at the Motel 6, where he had a room with his girlfriend.

Detectives also asked why he had changed his clothes between the photo snapped of him, and the interview with police later that day. Martinez says he took off his black Broncos jersey and left it in his Motel 6 room, and the only person who would be there is his girlfriend, who police found was currently in New Mexico.

Police called the girlfriend who said that the day before, Gilliam told her that he was going to kill her. When asked why that would be the case, the girlfriend said that Gilliam had sold her drugs and that she owed him money.

She also said a cousin of hers had robbed Gilliam in the past, and thought this was his way of getting his revenge on her and her cousin.

It was from the above evidence that Gilliam was charged with First Degree Murder and two counts of Attempted First Degree Murder. He's slated to appear in El Paso County court, next week.