murder
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Colorado justices ponder ‘gotcha’ for defendant after messy process impacted mental health evidence
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Some members of the Colorado Supreme Court were uncomfortable last week with letting a defendant’s murder conviction stand after a series of missteps resulted in a trial judge blocking jurors from hearing an expert’s assessment of the defendant’s mental health. Although the details were complicated, the legal issue was more streamlined: State law requires defendants…
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Appeals court overturns road rage murder conviction due to faulty jury instruction
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Colorado’s second-highest court overturned a defendant’s murder conviction on Thursday, concluding an Arapahoe County judge provided an incorrect self-defense instruction to the jury about the road rage encounter. In November 2020, Romeo Desean Thompson was behind Phillip Hunt at an intersection. The light turned green, but Hunt did not immediately move forward. Thompson honked, after…
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Colorado justices: El Paso County judge erred by removing prosecutor for comments about stabbing public defenders
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The Colorado Supreme Court, by a 5-1 vote, concluded on Monday that an El Paso County judge mistakenly removed a prosecutor from a murder case after he was overheard saying he hoped the defendant would stab public defenders if he were released from custody. As the prosecution and the defense litigated Rocky Wayne West’s competency…
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Two charged with murder of woman in Westminster parking lot
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Two men face murder charges after a fatal shooting in Westminster last month. The 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said it officially filed murder charges against 19-year-old Daniel Romero and 24-year-old Michael Fernandez, Jr. on Monday morning. The charges stem from an incident that occurred in a parking lot in the 8400 block of Decatur…
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Appeals court reverses murder conviction after Denver judge violated public trial right
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Colorado’s second-highest court reversed a defendant’s murder conviction on Thursday because a Denver judge violated his constitutional right to a public trial. Due to an unusually large jury pool at Edward R. Sandoval’s 2022 trial, Chief Judge Christopher J. Baumann did not allow observers to be present in his courtroom during jury selection. Although the…
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Officers cleared in Broomfield hostage standoff shooting
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The 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office determined the actions of multiple Broomfield SWAT officers who shot and injured a man during a hostage standoff were justified as reasonable use of force. District Attorney Brian Mason wrote a decision letter to the chiefs of the Broomfield and Lafayette police departments and to the Boulder County Sheriff’s…
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Colorado justices weigh potential race-based treatment for Arapahoe County murder defendant
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The Colorado Supreme Court considered a convicted defendant’s argument on Thursday that Arapahoe County prosecutors unconstitutionally singled out him and another Black teenager for murder prosecutions as adults, while offering lenient plea deals to the two non-Black co-defendants. Lloyd Chavez IV, a student at Cherokee Trail High School, died in May 2019 after four teenagers…
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A jail death in Denver raises questions about intake policies — and how a man with a violent history kept getting released early
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On June 30, deputies from the Denver Sheriff Department responded to an overnight call for help in the agency’s Downtown Detention Center. They found a man — later identified as 34-year-old Vincent Chacon — unresponsive in his cell, where he was pronounced dead, the police said in a news release. Police investigators later said the…
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Federal judge dismisses claim of falsified testimony against El Paso County coroner employee
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A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit from a man who was tried and acquitted of his girlfriend’s 2021 murder, and who subsequently accused a witness of fabricating evidence to make him seem guilty. Joseph Hunnicutt stood trial twice in El Paso County for the killing of Alison Cantrell. At the first trial in…
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Appeals court addresses defendant’s request to get property back 3 years after Supreme Court laid out process
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Almost three years after the Colorado Supreme Court clarified how a convicted defendant may ask law enforcement to hand over his seized property, the state’s second-highest court found an El Paso County judge wrongly denied the man’s request to return certain items. Jurors convicted James Woo in 2018 for the murder of Julie Tureson in Colorado…
