Claudia Barajas Allegedly Burns Down Ex-GF's Home, Blames Her Own Daughter

You don't need to be an expert in math to know that schmucky behavior can be multiplied.

And if law enforcers are right, the story of Claudia Barajas is a case in point.

A resident of Fountain, Barajas is accused of setting a fire to her ex-girlfriend's mobile home in Colorado Springs, then trying to blame her own daughter for the crime.

The tale got underway at 10:52 p.m. on June 6, when members of the Colorado Springs Police Department and the Colorado Springs Fire Department responded to a report of a structure fire on the 5100 block of Airport Road.

Here's a CSFD photo from the scene:


The mobile home belonged to Hilda Martinez, who was inside at the time of the blaze along with her teenage daughter. Both were able to escape without injury.

It didn't take investigators long to determine that the fire was deliberately set — and their prime suspect was Barajas.

No wonder, since she was seen in surveillance footage shot in the mobile home park. She's said to have disappeared behind Martinez's place not once but twice around the time the flames got going.

According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, quoting from an arrest affidavit, Barajas and Martinez had been a couple for several years prior to a recent breakup, which Barajas seems to have taken hard. There are references to her waiting outside Martinez's workplace until she appeared, then begging for them to get back together.

Martinez was having none of that. She reportedly filed a restraining order three days later, after Barajas allegedly forwarded her "a disturbing movie trailer that made Martinez think Barajas intended to harm her daughter," the Gazette reports.


Meanwhile, investigators are said to have chatted with Barajas on several occasions.

The first time around, she said she'd gone to the park after speaking with a woman who'd claimed to be in a relationship with Martinez. However, Barajas maintained that after approaching the trailer, she was too shy to knock on the door.

The next time, circa July, Barajas claimed that if she had started the fire, it was an accident caused by a cigarette she dropped near the trailer.

Then, in August, Barajas reached out to the cops to suggest that her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend might have started the fire.

It didn't take long for the couple to get out from under the bus Barajas seemingly drove onto them. The cops looked at cellphone location data for June 6 and found that they weren't anywhere near the trailer park on that night.

Barajas was, of course — and she's now been arrested on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder and arson.

That's taking schmuckiness much too far. Here's a look at Barajas's double-mug shot.