Colorado’s second-highest court reinstated a Garfield County defendant’s arson charge on Thursday, concluding a trial judge improperly credited a witness’s claim that she alone was responsible for starting the fire.

A sheriff’s deputy responded to a brush fire near Parachute in May 2024, next to a residential neighborhood. Witness statements and video evidence suggested Tiana Thomas and Brandon D. Jensen had been setting off fireworks in the front yard of a home. The deputy found an empty gas can, a butane lighter torch, and firework remnants in the backyard.

Jensen allegedly admitted to setting off Roman candles with Thomas ahead of the fire. He also allegedly said he tried to put out the fire.

The fire burned vegetation and also a portion of a neighbor’s backyard, including items located there.

Prosecutors charged Thomas and Jensen. Thomas accepted a plea and Jensen requested a preliminary hearing to determine whether there was probable cause to bring him to trial.

At the hearing, then-District Court Judge Denise K. Lynch heard from multiple law enforcement witnesses, plus Thomas. Thomas testified that she, and she alone, started the fire. She added that Jensen was in the front yard mowing the lawn, and should not “get in trouble for something I did.”

After noting that she must view the evidence “in the light most favorable to the prosecution,” and that she could not “engage in credibility determinations,” Lynch found the prosecution lacked probable cause to charge Jensen.

“Defendant admitted that he and Ms. Thomas were shooting off fireworks in the front of the house, but the fire started in the back of the house. Ms. Thomas admitted that she was the one who shot off the mortar from the deck at the back,” wrote Lynch. “When she did so, Defendant was mowing the (lawn) in the front of the house. There is no evidence putting Defendant at the back of the house and lighting off fireworks.”

The prosecution appealed her decision, arguing that the only evidence suggesting Thomas alone started the fire was her testimony at the hearing.

“It is apparent that the District Court took Ms. Thomas’s testimony at face value, despite conflicting evidence and evidence of Ms. Thomas’s untruthfulness,” wrote Deputy District Attorney Reede Neutze.

A three-judge Court of Appeals panel agreed, concluding Lynch’s “erroneous acceptance” of Thomas’ statements was contrary to her obligation to view the evidence in the prosecution’s favor.

“And while Jensen correctly notes that nothing in the district court’s written order indicates that the court weighed the witnesses’ credibility, we cannot ignore that, at the conclusion of the hearing, the court explicitly observed that she found Thomas’s testimony ‘credible,'” wrote Judge Ted C. Tow III in the March 26 opinion. “We conclude that the evidence supports a reasonable inference that, when Jensen set off a Roman candle in the front yard, the firework went into the air, landed in the backyard, and started the fire.”

The panel reinstated the arson charge.

The case is People v. Jensen.