murder
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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…
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Colorado justices weigh ‘cascade of errors’ in Arapahoe County murder trial
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There was no dispute that Terrence G. Davis died by gunshot in an Aurora alleyway in 2017. At the trial of Davis’ suspected killer, jurors reached two conclusions. First, they believed he was guilty of second-degree murder for causing Davis’ death. Second, they were asked whether the defendant used a gun. No, said the jury, he…
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Colorado justices may address whether defendants have right to review evidence when challenging convictions
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The Colorado Supreme Court signaled on Tuesday that it may decide whether defendants challenging their criminal convictions due to ineffective assistance of counsel are entitled to the evidence the prosecution already handed over before trial. An attorney representing Keevin Bell II years after his Jefferson County murder conviction was unable to obtain all the evidence…
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Appeals judge calls for investigation into law firm’s handling of potential murder weapon
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A member of Colorado’s second-highest court took the extraordinary step on Thursday of calling for an investigation into the “serious ethical issues” raised by a criminal defense firm’s concealment of a potential murder weapon at its office without notifying the prosecution. A three-judge Court of Appeals panel upheld the convictions of Daniel Jesus Lopez, who is…
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Denver judge failed to let defendant speak, appeals court finds in overturning 48-year sentence
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A Denver judge did not satisfy her obligation to ensure a defendant knew he could speak on his own behalf at sentencing, Colorado’s second-highest court determined in ordering a new sentencing hearing on Thursday. Jurors convicted Joe Pinheiro of second-degree murder in 2022 for fatally shooting Philip Malinowski five years earlier. The parties disputed whether Pinheiro’s…
