There is something weird going on in the Denver criminal courts. It is an approach to “justice” the public does not know.

On Aug. 5, 2020, Kevin Bui, 16 years old at the time, and two teen accomplices set fire to the home of Senegalese immigrants and burned five people to death. It would have been eight deaths, but three people escaped by jumping out of the inferno. They planned the murder for a long time. According to the Denver District Attorney, “five people inside the house died in the fire, including a young mother and her infant daughter, as well as a young couple and their 1-year-old daughter.” What kind of sentence did the DA equate to justice for the mass murder of these innocent people?

An inexplicable guilty plea to only two counts of second-degree murder (for five murder victims) with a cap of 60 years in prison. Under Colorado’s broken sentencing scheme, the DA knew such a plea would make Bui the Baby Burner eligible for parole in about 30 years — about six years per person he burned to death — including the kids.

Burned. To. Death.

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But it is worse than that. The DA press release does not reveal teenagers convicted of second-degree murder are eligible to apply for a special three-year program that would get them paroled after fewer than 30 years. These mass murderers may be back on our streets before they are 45. The children they murdered will still be incinerated.

On July 31, 2021, Jameel James, a 17-year-old driving a stolen truck at the time, fired multiple shots into the car of a 31-year-old man driving home from work to plan his wedding with his fiancé, killing him. For what the DA described as “a senseless and completely unprovoked murder,” the DA reduced the charge to second-degree murder and capped the sentence at 25 years in prison. The judge sentenced him to 22 years, resulting in likely parole eligibility in less than 11. The cold-blooded killer will likely be paroled by the time he is 30.

On Oct. 22, 2022, 20-year-old Emilio Gomez robbed and shot to death a 16-year-old boy in Denver. The Denver DA again reduced the charges to second-degree murder and 58 years in prison. Which is fake. When anyone under the age of 21 in Colorado is convicted of anything less than first-degree murder, they get the same shot at a much earlier parole thanks to the soft-on-evil legislation coming out of the Gold Dome each year. Expect Gomez to walk our streets again by the time he is 45.

On Dec. 23, 2022, two days before Christmas, Deontre Hollie shot 16-year-old Tayanna Manuel in the head and then dumped her body behind a dumpster where nobody — including her mother — would know what happened to her until Dec. 26. Hollie shot another teen as well. For those cold-blooded and evil acts, the Denver DA again reduced the charges to second-degree murder and assault and agreed to a sentence of seven years in the Youthful Offender System (YOS). With discretionary credit for time served, that murderer will be on our streets before he is 24.

And then there is this: On Jan. 19, 2022, Bradley Biggie, a 48-year-old father with a clean criminal history, who lived with his teenage daughter on-site at the leasing office where he worked, shot and killed Damir Pugh, age 30. Pugh, with meth and fentanyl in his system and armed with multiple knives, a drill and other burglary tools, broke through three doors to steal. Had he lived, Pugh may have been charged with first-degree burglary, punishable by 10 to 32 years in prison.

The Denver DA charged Biggie with first-degree murder and asked the court to hold him without bond. Finding the evidence not strong enough, the court rejected that effort. The jury rejected the DA’s argument for first-degree (premeditated) murder and instead found him guilty of second-degree murder. But unlike the cases above, the DA asked for the maximum sentence, arguing the burglar-victim had only engaged in “theft of some money from this company that has thousands of units in Colorado and across the country… like I dunno a million-dollar company that someone is stealing some money from.” In Denver, it appears that if you are deemed wealthy, being burglarized and stolen from is not a big deal.

The same judge who sentenced one of the teenage arsonist-mass murderers to 40 years in prison for five deaths called the armed and drug-fueled burglar-victim “innocent” and sentenced Biggie to the maximum sentence — 48 years in prison. Even with potential parole at just under 50%, Biggie will still likely die in prison somewhere in his 70s.

There are three things that distinguish Biggie from the cold-blooded murderers above. He was older, he was white, and he killed a single person who was armed, on drugs, and in the middle of a burglary.

If you can make sense of all of this — you are smarter than I am by a ton.

Prosecutorial discretion in plea bargaining is nearly limitless. It is entrusted to elected DAs by the public they serve. How the DA uses such discretion can message to the community their approach to public safety, criminal justice and mercy.

From these cases — go to the internet and do your own research — what message is being sent?

George Brauchler is the former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District and is a candidate for district attorney in the newly created 23rd Judicial District. He has served as an Owens Early Criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute. Follow him on Twitter(X): @GeorgeBrauchler.