Prosecutors charged a Cortez man this week with first-degree murder, accusing him of premeditated murder in the shooting death of his Ignacio drug dealer.
Robert Dean Rose, 50, also known as Dean Seavy, caused the death of Mark Wayman, 65, of Ignacio, “after deliberation,” a Class 1 felony, Assistant District Attorney David Ottman wrote in formal charging documents. Rose appeared Friday in District Court for formal advisement on his charges.
He faces three other felony charges related to Wayman’s death, including tampering with a deceased human body, first-degree aggravated motor vehicle theft and tampering with physical evidence.
Specifically, prosecutors said Rose “destroyed, mutilated, concealed, removed or altered a human body, part of a human body or human remains” with the intent to interfere in a criminal investigation, according to formal charges.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Rose faces a minimum sentence of life in prison.
Law enforcement wrote in arresting documents that it found Wayman dead May 13 just outside his home in the 400 block of County Road 509, about 3½ miles north of Ignacio, with three bullet wounds in his neck and the back of his head. Wayman had been borrowing a 2005 silver Dodge Neon that was missing at the time of his death, a La Plata County Sheriff’s deputy wrote in arresting documents.
Four days after Wayman’s death, the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office stopped what was identified as a stolen 2005 silver Dodge Neon in Towaoc that matched the description of the one missing from Wayman’s home earlier that week, arresting documents show. The driver, identified as Fernando Hill, told investigators Rose had given him the vehicle and asked him to sell it May 11, the day of the alleged murder.
“Fernando also stated Dean had told him he ‘popped his dealer in the back of the neck twice,’” law enforcement wrote in arresting documents.
Fernando also gave law enforcement access to his cellphone and Facebook page, where investigators found messages between him and Rose about getting rid of the vehicle and selling weapons.
Rose was arrested May 20 after being spotted at a coffee shop in Durango. He is being held at the La Plata County Jail on $500,000 bond.
bhauff@durangoherald.com