Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams says a 2024 law required him to release a man who had been charged with attempted murder stemming from an incident in Greeley earlier this year.

According to Reams, 21-year-old Debisa Ephraim was arrested in April and charged with second-degree attempted murder following an altercation between him and another man that had been captured on video.

The victim suffered a brain injury and spent a “substantial” amount of time in the hospital and rehabilitation, but Reams says he is now mostly recovered.

Ephraim, a refugee from Tanzania who had a previous record of violent behavior, had been detained in the Weld County Jail for several months when his defense team asked the court to determine whether he was competent to proceed, Reams said.

Under Colorado law, defendants are considered competent to proceed unless they have a “mental or developmental disability that would prevent them from sufficiently assisting the criminal defense attorney.”

Reams says Ephraim was not found to have any mental illnesses, but his defense argued that because he had not received an education and was not from the United States, he did not understand how the country’s criminal justice system works.

“His comprehension of the criminal justice system is such that, from what we understand, it was believed that he wasn’t capable of understanding the ramifications of what our criminal justice system could or could not do to him,” said Reams, who added that District Attorney Michael Rourke “did everything he knew how to do” to prevent the court from releasing Ephraim.

According to Ream, he was required to release Ephraim from custody once he was found incompetent due to a 2024 law, House Bill 1034, which requires the court to terminate a case if an individual is found incompetent to proceed and unrestorable to competency.

The bill, which primarily dealt with defendents found incompetent to proceed due to mental illness, received bipartisan support, passing through the Senate unanimously and the House on a 52-9 vote.

Reams says Ephraim was released last week and is unsure of his whereabouts. Reams has contacted the victim’s family, who he says are concerned that Ephraim will reoffend.

“He ultimately goes back out on the street with no chance for conviction in this case or the prior cases, and there’s really no way to ensure that he’s not gonna reenter into the type of behavior that got him into our facility in the first place and get someone severely injured,” he said. “I just can’t wrap my mind around the outcome of this case or the prior cases; it’s just a complete failure of the criminal justice system.”

On Sept. 8, the Weld County Sheriff’s Office posted a video of the fight on X, along with a notification that Ephraim had been released earlier that day.

“The state legislature and the Governor have continued to weaken the criminal justice system by handcuffing law enforcement, prosecutors and judges for the sake of criminals,” Reams wrote on the post. “Colorado HB24-1034 has created a crisis where very dangerous individuals are being released to the street to reoffend over and over, this is the latest example. I pray this individual doesn’t hurt another innocent victim but the public deserves to know of his past violent actions so they can protect themselves accordingly. God help this State.”

Reams said his primary reason for posting the graphic video was to inform the community that Ephraim had been released.

“My intention with this was to bring awareness to the community that there’s a dangerous person out there and the system failed in keeping this person in a safe place so people could be safe,” he said. “Quite honestly, I never believed I’d be doing a public notification to tell people a guy is being released and there’s nothing we can do, but as a law enforcement official, I didn’t feel like I could just walk away from this and let him into my community without warning folks.”

The post received significant attention, including from Elon Musk and Gov. Jared Polis, who called the situation “absolutely unacceptable.”

“I’m calling on the county attorney and DA to use state law, including CRS Title 25 and Title 27, to ensure he’s not at large,” Polis commented on the post. “This should have happened BEFORE release not after. Remove this threat now!”

Polis told Colorado Politics he has spoken with DA Rourke and other involved parties and is looking forward to “continuing to work together with local governments including sheriffs and district attorneys to improve public safety and keep dangerous individuals off the streets and get people the help they need for their own safety as well as the safety of others.”

This legislative session, lawmakers passed the bipartisan Senate Bill 41, which went into effect last month. Under the bill, the Department of Human Services can partner with state and local organizations to find supportive housing for recently-released individuals found incompetent to proceed. The bill also requires DHS to collect information on where a person is living after their case has been dismissed and share that information with the Division of Housing.

Reams is hopeful Ephraim’s case will prompt lawmakers to make changes to the law to ensure something similar doesn’t happen in the future.

“When this bill was being debated, there were warnings that it isn’t going to end well, and now the conversation is around how we fix this, and it’s puzzling, but at least there’s awareness out there now,” he said. “If it highlights how broken the system is, well, that’s just a bonus in my mind, but regardless, it’s not okay for anyone in the lawmaking sphere to say, ‘well, we did out best.’ Your best isn’t good enough here, and someone’s going to get very gravely hurt, because that’s already happened.”