BY CAROL MCKINLEY The Denver Gazette

Opening statements in the trial of a man accused of killing a popular Arvada police officer during a nasty domestic dispute started after two days of jury selection in a Jefferson County courtroom on Thursday.

Dillon Vakoff, 27, was shot and killed in the line of duty Sept. 11, 2022.

Sonny Almanza, 32, is charged with first-degree murder of a peace officer with extreme indifference, first-degree murder after deliberation, first-degree murder with extreme indifference, attempted first-degree murder after deliberation, and attempted first-degree murder with extreme indifference, among other counts.

Almanza, dressed in a suit, showed no emotion as attorneys squared off. Vakoff’s girlfriend, Megan Esslinger, was in the courtroom for the opening statements.

The early morning of Sept. 11, 2022, Vakoff and his partner, Arvada police officer Daniel Garibay, walked into a chaotic custody dispute over who was supposed to be taking care of two small children. That night turned out to be Vakoff’s last call.

Almanza and Lexis Lopez had recently broken off their common-law marriage and had no official agreements over where their children would sleep.

Lopez had left their two small girls with relatives to go to an “adult baby shower,” according to defense attorney Nancy Holzman, and had been “drinking tequila significantly throughout the day.”

Almanza got upset that Lopez’ family had left the couple’s children while she went out for the night, Holzman said.

But prosecutors painted a different picture. They said that Almanza went into his apartment in the area of West 51st Avenue near the intersection with Marshall Street and returned to the street with an assault rifle and two large capacity magazines.

“Everyone converged in the middle of the street,” said prosecutor Tracy Schroeder. That’s when Vakoff and Garibay arrived and started breaking up fights, Shroeder said, “and then there was a shot.”

Lexis Lopez’ sister, Mercedez, had been shot in the leg by Almanza, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said that Almanza then “unleashed a flurry of gunshots on Vakoff in full uniform who was doing his job to protect and serve” after the officer told him to get his hands up.

But Almanza’s attorney argued that the scene was so frenzied and crowded with angry people, Almanza did not hear Vakoff’s command and he did not know that he was shooting at a police officer.

“He thought he was being shot at by someone in the Lopez family,” said Holzman. She described the yelling and screaming caught on police body-worn cameras as “the most chaotic scene I have ever seen.”

The bullet to Vakoff’s mouth severed his cervical spinal cord, according to testimony during the preliminary hearing. But he also had several non-fatal gunshot wounds, including to his calf, scalp and arm. Vakoff was shot from about a car’s length away.

Law enforcement officers from around Colorado turned out to say their goodbyes at Vakoff’s funeral in September 2022. Known by the nickname “Squirrelly,” Vakoff was an Air Force veteran who wanted to be a SWAT officer.

The Arvada Police Department remembered him as a “warrior” who “placed himself between the gunman and men, women and children.”

Each side took under half an hour each to give its opening statement.

First Judicial District Judge Russell Klein instructed the jury not to watch any media reports, visit the site of the fatal incident, or surf the internet during the trial.

The first witness in what is expected to be a 10-day trial will take the stand Thursday morning.