John Jefferson
Left: Jasmin Cigarroa (Facebook). Right: Jonathan Nuno-Mijangos (KCNC).
A Colorado man will spend the rest of his life in prison for strangling his young bride, stuffing her body in a bag and dumping it along a road in a rural area outside Denver.
Jonathan Nuno-Mijangos, 27, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on Friday in the death of Jasmin Cigarroa, 24, the Denver District Attorney’s Office announced in a news release. He was convicted on Wednesday of first-degree murder, assault, tampering with a deceased body and abuse of a corpse, prosecutors said.
“It has been three years and 5 months since we lost Jasmin and today justice was finally served when Jonathan received his sentence of life in prison,” the victim’s brother, Francisco Cigarroa, wrote on Facebook. “Jasmin can finally rest peacefully.”
Cigarroa was reported missing on March 10, 2021. A missing person’s alert was issued the following day, and law enforcement discovered her body on March 12, 2021, in rural Adams County. Nuno-Mijangos was quickly arrested and charged in her death.
Citing an arrest affidavit, local ABC affiliate KMGH reported that Nuno-Mijangos called the police on March 10, reporting his wife missing. He reported last seeing her at home on March 9 before he left for work. He told authorities she texted him around 10 a.m., saying she was going out with friends later that day, the outlet reported. But she never showed up. Jasmin Cigarroa’s family said that the friend her husband said she was supposedly going to visit reported never hearing or seeing her.
Authorities pieced together a timeline of her talking to neighbors. One heard a loud boom like a “body hit (the) floor,” around 11 a.m. on March 9, KMGH reported. Someone also reported hearing a sound “like someone had been thrown,” the outlet reported.
Someone also reported possible unusual late-night behavior by Nuno-Mijangos, such as moving cars in and out of the garage, local Fox affiliate KDVR reported, citing court documents.
Citing the affidavit, local NBC affiliate KUSA reported witnesses seeing him on the street leaning into his trunk and carrying a black backpack after midnight.
Authorities linked him to the crime when they pinged his cellphone to towers in a remote area where her body was found in plastic bags with duct tape under loose grass and dirt, KUSA reported the affidavit saying.
Francisco Cigarroa told KDVR he had previously physically abused her and said he hopes the case remains a stark reminder about the dangers of domestic violence.
“Let this be a lesson in any abusive relationship,” he told the outlet. “They aren’t safe with these toxic guys that can hurt them.”
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