The California Highway Patrol detained a 66-year-old Boulder Creek man after two bodies were discovered last month in the back of a pick-up truck on rural SR-35 in the Santa Cruz mountains near Los Gatos.
According to Sgt. Andrew Barclay, James David Collier was arrested on Sunday for two charges of murder.
His arrest stemmed from an incident on March 24 in which CHP officers discovered the deaths of two men inside an abandoned pickup truck. The day prior, they were shot to death.
According to court records made public on Monday, the guys were both bound by rope, and one of them had a black 1988 Harley Davidson placed on his body.
The coroner identified the males as Sean Pfeffer, 45, and Colter White, 53.
“I lost a brother, my mom lost a son, I lost a brother. My niece and nephews lost their dad. And it is horrible,” said Mink Perez, the sister of White.
“He was a wonderful husband and a better father. And this world is just not going to be the same without him,” said Stacy White, Colter White’s widow.
According to the statement of facts, which redacted the victims’ names, Collier had been in a recent “escalating” dispute with at least one of the men about rent.
One of the victims, whose name was withheld, attempted to evict Collier from the property. Another lady told officers she owned the property and wanted to evict Collier so she could sell it, but he refused to leave, according to CHP Detective Joseph Espinoza’s statement of facts.
According to Espinoza’s account, Collier pulled out a shotgun during one of these bouts and struck one of the victims with it.
Another witness informed police that they observed Collier riding an ATV with a gun on several occasions and performing maintenance in the neighbourhood.
The CHP did indicate that on April 6, detectives identified Collier as the suspect and obtained a search warrant with assistance from the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office.
According to Espinoza’s version, Collier agreed to a police interview on April 2 but denied any conflicts over the property.
According to the CHP, Collier acknowledged to the killing on April 16 while drinking with a person whose identity has been removed from court records.
Collier was supposed to be arraigned on Monday afternoon, but his court appearance was postponed until Wednesday owing to an unspecified disagreement with the public defender’s office. New legal representation will be obtained prior to Wednesday’s rescheduled hearing.
He is being kept in jail without bail.
Earlier this month, White’s friends and relatives described him as a “great guy” and said the second victim, Pfeffer, was a friend of his.
“Colter was a great guy,” according to his friend Janelle Sanford. “He was a great dad, he was a great husband, he was a great everything.”
Sanford stated that White had previously been in problems with the law but had since turned his life around.
“He was trying to do the right thing with the wrong people,” she told me. “Trying to get people to be righteous and do right.”
