News

Three people have been arrested in connection with a stabbing and gunshot that occurred earlier this year at the Iron Horse Inn in north Durango.

Brandy Carl, 27, Ian Taylor, 26, and Christopher Lewis, 29, face various charges related to the assault, attempted robbery and attempted murder of Bryan Picard, 26, during the early hours of Jan. 14 at the Iron Horse Inn, 5800 Main Ave.

Carl is suspected of attempted second-degree homicide, felony menacing and complicity. Lewis is suspected of felony assault, and Taylor is suspected of felony assault and attempted robbery.

Police responded to a report of a gunshot and stabbing at 3:37 a.m., Jan. 14, at the Iron Horse, where they found Taylor lying on the floor with a gash to the back side of his left leg. Carl was at the scene giving Taylor first aid.

Police said Carl gave a “very unclear statement as to the events she witnessed or observed that lead her to call 911,” according to an eight-page arrest affidavit filed in La Plata County Combined Courts.

Police believe Picard stabbed Taylor in self-defense, and as Picard made his way out of the apartment, Carl fired a handgun in his direction, but missed.

Carl told police she stopped by from another apartment and found Taylor lying on the floor bleeding. Taylor, in his statement to police, said an Asian man in a green coat with fur around the hood had stabbed him. But a police investigation found both were not telling the truth, according to affidavits.

Instead, police believe the melee got started several days earlier. Apparently, Carl tried to visit the place where Picard was staying in Hermosa. But the owner of the house didn’t want Carl to visit. So when Carl pulled into the driveway, Picard walked out with a firearm and told Carl to leave, Picard told police. So she left.

This apparently didn’t sit well with Carl.

Carl told her friends that Picard shot at her when she confronted him, according the affidavit. But in an interview with police, Picard denied shooting at her.

On the night of the stabbing, Picard was texting a woman about scoring some marijuana, and after talking for a few hours, the woman told Picard to come to the Iron Horse Inn. Picard told police he did not realize he was going to Taylor’s apartment and that he did not know Carl would be there.

Picard and another man, James Johnston, walked into the apartment. Picard carried a cane that looked like a broken shovel handle with tape. The two greeted Taylor and a man they didn’t know, later identified as Christopher Lewis, and sat on the sofa. Then Picard saw Carl.

Taylor accused Picard of shooting at Carl days earlier and, eventually, told Picard to empty his pockets and “almost immediately ... grabbed the cane from (Picard) and struck him in the head at least three times,” police wrote in the affidavit.

Picard fell to the floor, and Lewis joined in on the beating. Carl came down a staircase and pointed a gun at Johnston. She told Johnston to “stay out of it,” according to an arrest affidavit.

While Picard was on his back, taking closed-fisted blows from both Taylor and Lewis, he reached with his right hand for his knife sheathed in his belt, Picard told police. He grabbed the knife, “and while still on his back, stabbed forward and upward twice,” according to arresting documents. His first stabs missed, but the last one hit Taylor.

Taylor “immediately stopped fighting and got off him,” police wrote. Picard made it to his feet and ran for the door. While making his escape, he heard a gunshot. A bullet exploded through a window “inches in front of him,” according to police. Johnston was next to Carl when she fired the handgun, he told police.

Arrest affidavits were filed Feb. 4 for Carl, Taylor and Lewis. Carl was arrested along with two others in January in connection with drug charges during a search warrant performed in connection to the stabbing.

bhauff@durangoherald.com