The caption mentions the site of a road rage incident in Colorado Springs, Colorado, along with the images of Daniel Nations and Jacob Martinez provided by the Colorado Springs Police Department.
A man from Colorado, recently taken into custody for a deadly road rage confrontation, had previously been probed for murder on two occasions. One of these investigations was linked to the notorious 2017 double homicide in Delphi, Indiana.
The Colorado Springs Police Department, in a press release, disclosed that they arrested 39-year-old Daniel Nations. He is suspected of hitting 35-year-old Jacob Martinez with a vehicle during a road rage episode on July 24. It was reported that police got calls about a pedestrian being run over at 11:25 a.m. The vehicle involved then fled the scene, and Nations was later confirmed as the driver.
Martinez was taken to the hospital in critical condition as the investigation commenced. Initially, Nations faced first-degree assault charges, but these were escalated to first-degree murder after Martinez passed away on July 27 due to his injuries.
But this isn’t the first murder case in which Nations’ name has come up.
Local CBS station KCNC reported that Nations had been scrutinized after the murder of Timothy Watkins, a 60-year-old cyclist discovered in a shallow grave near a popular trail in September 2017. Although questioned concerning Watkins’ death, Nations was not charged, and the case remains unsolved.
Further reports from KCNC reveal that Nations admitted to threatening two hikers with a hatchet nearby the area where Watkins’ body was found, during the time in September 2017 when Watkins disappeared. Known as the “Hatchet Man,” Nations pleaded guilty to charges involving menacing and weapon offenses, resulting in a brief jail sentence and a probation period of three years.
Nations’ name was also floated in connection to the February 2017 murders of 13-year-old Liberty German and 14-year-old Abby Williams; Nations reportedly lived in Delphi, Indiana, at the same time the murders took place, not far from where both girls’ bodies were found. He was eventually cleared as a suspect.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to KCNC that this was the same Daniel Nations who was investigated in 2017.
Nations was charged with first-degree murder. He is currently being held without bail at the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center. His next court date is scheduled for Oct. 8.
