Arrest affidavit sheds new light on Bashline murder, suspect

     GREELEY - A former Frederick High School student faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of former Brighton High School and Harlem Globetrotters' trainer Tom Bashline.
     Bashline was found dead in his Frederick home almost three weeks ago. He'd been shot to death. Bashline remembered during memorial service
     The Weld County District Attorney's Office charged 23-year-old Draton Mares, a former student at Frederick High School, with Bashline's murder. According to classmates.com, he was a member of the school's class of 2007. Mares also faces a count of aggravated motor vehicle theft.
      Mares, who is in the Boulder County Jail on unrelated charges, has not been arrested for these crimes. Weld County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Jennifer Finch said once Mares is arrested, his first court appearance would be set.
      According to the arrest affidavit, Bashline and Mares were acquainted since 2010. Mares told investigators he "had been in an occasional sexual relationship" with Bashline. On Nov. 4, the two communicated by cell phone texts and agreed to meet in Longmont before returning to Bashline's home.
      According to the warrant, Mares told investigators that Bashline's attitude changed, that "Tommy was demanding, disrespectful and verbally abusive" and that the change made Mares "angry." Mares told investigators he thought he would take a gun from a backpack on a bed and shoot Bashline.

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Draton Mares

Tom Bashline

      The warrant said Mares told Bashline to "lie on the bed and that he (Mares) would give him a back rub" because Bashline had been asking for one. The warrant goes on to say that Mares blindfolded Bashline with socks, took a pillow, placed it over Bashline's head and shot Bashline in the back of the head. The weapon, a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun, was recovered. A copy of the arrest affidavit is attached at the conclusion of this story but readers are cautioned that some of the material is graphic in nature and recommended only for mature audiences.
      The affidavit also said Mares told investigators how he tried to clean up the home afterwards, including pouring Windex on Bashline's back, flushing evidence down a toilet and concealing the pillow case from the pillow he had thrown in a closet.   
      Later that day, Boulder police arrested Mares for not complying with work-release requirements. Three days later, detectives identified Mares as a suspect in two burglaries in Boulder.
      According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Mares' crime record dates back to August 2008, when he was accused in a felony check forgery case in Boulder County. He was charged with a misdemeanor traffic offense (driving under restraint) in 2009 in Northglenn.
      Mares was charged with third-degree burglary, a felony, two counts of second-degree larceny, which are misdemeanors, and defrauding an innkeeper in Boulder County in January of this year.  The district attorney's office dropped three of the charges, but Mares was found guilty on one of the larceny cases.
      His most recent scrape with the law was in Boulder County in May. Mares was found guilty of damaging property, a misdemeanor. The DA dropped two misdemeanor counts -- possession of narcotics equipment and of marijuana -- and a felony charge of possession of burglary tools.
      Mares also has two contempt of court citations on his record, one from Adams County and one from Boulder County.