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Background: The intersection in Colorado Springs, Colo., where the July 24 road rage incident took place (Google Maps). Inset (left to right): Daniel Nations and Jacob Martinez (Colorado Springs Police Department).
A Colorado man who was recently arrested in connection with a fatal road rage incident was under investigation for murder twice before, including the infamous 2017 double murder in Delphi, Indiana.
In a press release, the Colorado Springs Police Department announced the arrest of 39-year-old Daniel Nations, who is accused of running over 35-year-old Jacob Martinez during a road rage incident that occurred on July 24. According to police, officers responded at 11:25 a.m. that day to calls of a pedestrian being run over by a vehicle, which was then driven away. Police identified Nations as the driver of that car.
Martinez was brought to the hospital in critical condition while an investigation into the incident began. Nations was arrested and charged with assault in the first degree. After Martinez succumbed to his injuries on July 27, Nations” charges were upgraded to first-degree murder.
But this isn’t the first murder case in which Nations’ name has come up.
According to reporting by local CBS affiliate KCNC, Nations was investigated following the homicide death of Timothy Watkins, a 60-year-old cyclist whose body was found in a shallow grave off a popular biking trail in September 2017. Nations was questioned in connection to Watkins’ death, which was ruled a homicide, but was never charged. Watkins’ case has since gone cold.
KCNC reported that Nations pleaded guilty to charges that he threatened to harm two hikers with a hatchet near the same trail as Watkins, earning him the nickname “Hatchet Man.” Those threats occurred around the same time Watkins went missing, in September 2017. Nations pleaded guilty to menacing and weapons charges and served a short jail sentence and three years of probation.
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.
