Just short of eight years after police say he killed a friend just south of the Wyoming border, a 73-year-old man was sentenced to four years in prison for manslaughter.
Mark Switzer shot 49-year-old Nathan Combs near Weld County Roads 136 and 77 in the Hereford area after the two formed a plan to carry out Combs’ death, according to a news release from the Weld District Attorney’s Office. Switzer has just under two years left on the sentence, after having already served 793 days, according to Colorado court records.
Switzer was originally charged with first-degree murder for the killing but accepted a charge of manslaughter by aiding in suicide as part of a plea agreement, records show.
In May 2017, Combs was found dead near a semitruck in the Hereford area. Investigators originally believed he had died in an accident involving the truck but later learned he had been shot.
After identifying Switzer as a suspect, police collected several firearms from his home in Carpenter, Wyoming — just about 10 minutes from where Combs was shot. Analysis from a lab led to Switzer’s arrest in March 2023.
Further investigation allegedly revealed that, in the months leading up to his death, Combs had increased his life insurance policy and arranged for Switzer to carry out his death. Switzer and Combs were friends at the time of the plan, police say.
“This is not a momentary lapse in judgment or a mistake,” Deputy District Attorney Katherine Fitzgerald said during Friday’s sentencing hearing. “This was a calculated plan and a deliberate action. Regardless of whether the victim asked him to assist in his death, the defendant still killed Nathan Combs, and this type of behavior won’t be tolerated in our community.”
Chief Deputy District Attorney Anthony Perea prosecuted the case along with Fitzgerald.
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