Bill Blatnick, 63, to Plead Guilty in Cedar St. Bridge Homicide

Bill Blatnick, 63, who is accused of throwing another person over the Cedar Street Bridge railing in Trinidad in August 2024, appeared for a plea hearing at the Las Animas Courthouse on Monday, Feb. 5, where court filings show a major scheduling shift in the case. At that hearing Blatnick waived his right to a speedy trial and the previously set Feb. 24 trial date was removed in favor of a combined plea-and-sentence hearing in April.

The allegation in the case has been described in local reporting as a homicide stemming from the Cedar St. Bridge episode in August 2024; the reporting notes that “Trinidad man accused of throwing another person over the Trinidad Cedar St. Bridge railing back in August of 2024, Bill Blatnick, 63, found himself at the Las Animas Courthouse Monday, Feb. 5, for a plea hearing.” The materials available to this newsroom do not include a charging instrument specifying a degree of homicide, nor do they identify the alleged victim by name.

Procedural history in court records and the reporting shows repeated scheduling adjustments: Blatnick “made headlines in March 2025, when he pleaded not-guilty, with an anticipated trial scheduled for August later that year, before the February 2026 date.” Ultimately, the Feb. 5 hearing produced the waiver that altered the calendar: “Ultimately, Blatnick waived his right to a speedy trial, with the original trial date of Feb. 24 removed and replaced with a combined plea and sentence hearing in April, as his defense prepared to accept a plea agreement.”

Those docket movements carry practical implications for Las Animas County’s court operations and for public oversight. The case’s timeline - a March 2025 not-guilty plea, an anticipated August 2025 trial, a later Feb. 24 trial date, and the Feb. 5 waiver - culminates against a statutory speedy-trial deadline explicitly cited in the reporting: “His right to a speedy trial was set to expire on Mar. 10, 2026.” That statutory deadline and repeated rescheduling underscore how individual case decisions interact with county court calendars and with residents’ expectations for timely resolution.

Key facts remain unreported in the materials reviewed: the victim’s identity and current status, specific charges and counts, the exact April hearing date, defense counsel and prosecutor identities, and any terms of a potential plea agreement. The Chronicle-News byline on the reporting is T’Naus Nieto; the aggregated feed that surfaced the story included user-interface messages such as “Email Rejected!” and “Login to continue reading,” but the substantive court actions described above are recorded in the court summaries supplied to this newsroom.

A combined plea-and-sentence hearing has been scheduled for April, and local stakeholders and court-watchers should expect docket entries to reflect whether the defense accepts a plea agreement at that hearing. Until charging documents, court dockets, or statements from Las Animas County officials are obtained, reporting will continue to describe Blatnick as accused of homicide and to note the procedural steps taken at the Las Animas Courthouse.