DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. – Explosive new details are coming out in the murder of two people earlier this year in Keene Ranch in Douglas County, after the suspects in the killings appeared in court for their preliminary hearings.

26-year-old Josiah Sher said he murdered Amara Wells, 38, and Wells’ brother-in-law Bob Rafferty, 49, using two handguns and a knife early on the morning of February 23, 2011.

He said he was high on cocaine when he tried to cover evidence by setting fire to the Keene Ranch home.

In a two-and-a-half hour interview with lead investigator Sgt. Jason Weaver, Sher said Micah Woody hired him for $20,000 for Chris Wells in a murder plot hatched the week before.

Sher pinned Matthew Plake as the getaway driver on the morning of the murders.

Sher says he went through the front door of the home to Wells’ downstairs bedroom and fired numerous shots, hitting her at least twice.

Douglas County Sheriff's Office Special Victims Unit arrested Roger Charette, 59, from Highlands Ranch, on 13 counts of Sexual Assault on a Child (C-3-F), Aggravated Incest (C-3-F) and Habitual Sex Offender Against Children.   The Habitual Sex Offender Against Children charge is a sentence enhancement, which upon conviction, requires the Court to sentence the defendant to a term in the department of corrections of not less than three times the upper limit of the presumptive range for that class felony. 

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office investigation began in June of 2011, and a warrant was signed for Charette’s arrest on July 1, 2011.  He was taken into custody later that day and is currently in the Douglas County Detention Facility on a $250,000.00 bond.

Federal authorities say they have made 78 arrests in Colorado as part of a national crackdown on criminal aliens that the federal government says threatened public and national security.

There were 29 arrests in Denver, 13 in Aurora, seven in Commerce City and 29 others across the state.

The arrests included a 51-year-old Libyan man living in Denver who had been convicted of first-degree sexual assault of a child and domestic violence.