Case solved, the victim killed him. See below.6-3-2009 Colorado:
Extortion - Blackmail
The body found Monday in Palmer Park has been identified as Jon Hazard, 43, who was to face trial next week. Hazard was charged with ten felonies including sexual assault with a pattern of abuse, sexual assault on a child from a person in a position of trust, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Yesterday, the El Paso county coroner ruled that Hazard died from multiple gunshot wounds. Hazard’s shooter is still at large.
Hazard’s car is still missing, and police are asking for the public's help in locating the 2009 white Hyundai Sonata with license plates 124-RRU. Hazard's body was discovered by a park caretaker on Monday, and Lt. David Whitlock has confirmed the park as the crime scene. ..Source by Glorianne Scott
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Man found dead in Palmer Park faced sex assault charges
6-3-2009 Colorado:
A man who whose body was found Monday in Palmer Park was scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday for sexually assaulting a teenager multiple times.
Jon R. Hazard, 43, was found dead in the northeast part of the park with multiple gunshot wounds. He worked for Halliburton Trucking and lived in Colorado Springs and Grand Junction.
According to the arrest affidavit, the15-year-old girl told police she met Hazard when she was between the sixth and seventh grades. She was friends at the time with his sons when they lived in the same neighborhood in Colorado Springs.
The girl told investigators Hazard blackmailed her into the relationship using a video of her making out with a friend and threatened to show it to her mother if she didn't send him explicit pictures of herself.
In early 2008, the two went to a hotel, according to the affidavit, where she awoke to find Hazard sexually assaulting her. She ran into the bathroom where she stayed the rest of the night.
A similar incident at a hotel happened a few months later, police said, after Hazard gave the girl alcohol. She continued to send him nude pictures by cell phone and Hazard took photos of her in a motel room, police said. Last July, she went with Hazard to Grand Junction, where she was found by her mother and told her story to police.
A phone call in which Hazard admits molesting the girl and asking her if she was trying to get him arrested was tape recorded by police.
Hazard was arrested in December. Police have not said if they believe his death is related to the sexual assault charge.
His death was ruled a homicide by the El Paso County Coroner's Office. It is the 15th homicide in Colorado Springs this year.
Police are still looking for Hazard's car, a white 2009 Hyundai Sonata, bearing Colorado plates 124-RRU. Anyone with information about Hazard's death or the whereabouts of his car is asked to call police at 444-7000, or Pikes Peak Area Crime Stoppers at 635-7867. ..Source.. by MARIA ST.LOUIS-SANCHEZ, THE GAZETTE
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Teen pleads guilty to killing sex assault suspect
4-12-2010:
A 16-year-old Colorado Springs girl pleaded guilty today to manslaughter for shooting to death a man who was accused of sexually assaulting her.
As a result of a plea agreement, the girl will get two years' probation plus mandatory counseling when she is sentenced on May 25 in El Paso County juvenile court by Magistrate D. Denise Peacock.
The girl is currently in a residential treatment center in Denver. She has been in custody since July 13 when Colorado Springs Police arrested her on investigation of murder in the June 1 shooting of Jon R. Hazard whose body was found in a picnic area of Palmer Park. He was free on bond at the time.
Hazard, 43, died nine days before he was scheduled to stand trial. He had been accused of molesting the girl over a period of three years. When police arrested him and searched his home, investigators said they found several hundred sexually-explicit photographs and videos on his computer, including some of the girl.
The Gazette has withheld the girl’s name because the paper does not normally identify sexual assault victims.
The prospect of the girl not serving any time in prison for her guilty plea disappointed Hazard’s ex-wife, who had favored leniency for the youngster.
“I think there should be some sort of punishment there,” said Michelle Hazard Henderson, who divorced Hazard in 2000 and now lives in Texas with their two sons, ages 13 and 11. “I was asking for leniency, not complete and total forgiveness.”
“This has been a very odd situation for everyone,” Henderson added. “What he did to her was horrible.”
“I didn’t want her to get life or 50 years or even 10,” she said. But Henderson said she had hoped the girl would have been incarcerated at least until she turned 21.
Had the girl not met Hazard in the park that night and killed him, “he would have gotten a lot more time for abusing her than she would get for killing him,” Henderson said. She also questioned why the girl’s mother had allowed her to leave the house on the night of the shooting.
Previously, Henderson and her oldest son had sent letters to the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s office asking that the girl receive counseling and be treated like a victim as well.
“We both came to the conclusion that somehow it was self-defense and she did what she needed to do,” she told The Gazette in January. “We forgive her.”
The girl’s mother and grandparents were in the courtroom today as the youngster entered her plea, dressed in civilian clothes instead of the jail uniform she had worn at previous hearings. The girl’s lawyer, Ann P. Kaufman, declined comment after the hearing.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Kim Kitchen said the case was unlike any other that she has prosecuted. Prosecutors held off making a decision on whether to charge the youngster for several months while she underwent a series of psychological evaluations.
“We’ve worked a long time in coming up with this resolution,” Kitchen said. “I think it’s a good disposition.” ..Source.. by JOHN C. ENSSLIN
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Teen Girl Sentenced In Killing Of Her Accused Molester
5-25-2010 Colorado:
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A 17-year-old Colorado Springs girl who pleaded guilty to shooting her accused molester to death was sentenced Tuesday afternoon.
As a result of a plea agreement, the girl will face two years of probation plus mandatory counseling. She will now reside in a residential treatment facility for two years.
Over the last year, the girl, who was 16 at the time of the assaults, has undergone evaluations and therapy.
Jon Hazard, 43, was found shot to death at a picnic area in Palmer Park on June 1, 2009. That was just a few days before he was set to stand trial for molesting the girl for about three years.
According to the arrest affidavit, the girl said Hazard provided alcohol for her and her friends and videotaped her making out with another boy. Hazard is accused of using that tape as blackmail to force the girl to engage in sexual activity.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Kim Kitchen said it was one of the most unique cases our office has seen in 25 years.
"We worked a long time in coming up with this resolution. We spoke with the police department, the victim's family, doctors, the Department of Human Services and probation. The facts of the case and the opinions of the individual parties were all taken into consideration." ..Source.. by Johnray Strickland
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