murder
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Colorado Supreme Court to review case of spiritual leader found guilty of child abuse
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will review whether the Court of Appeals correctly overturned a woman’s felony convictions for child abuse resulting in death due to an inadequate jury instruction. Hannah Marshall, 8, and Makayla Roberts, 10, were discovered dead and decomposing in a vehicle located on Frederick “Alec” Blair’s Norwood farm…
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Appeals court orders new Weld County murder trial after judge refused to give self-defense instruction
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday decided a Weld County judge should have instructed jurors to consider whether a man accused of murder acted in self-defense, given that some evidence at the crime scene supported that theory. Jurors convicted Kenneth James Hoschouer III in 2021 of murdering his friend, Christopher Grau, at Grau’s residence in Firestone two years…
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A tattoo, the N-word, a different crime: Colorado justices hear appeal of former death row inmate
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Almost 20 years after the murders of a young couple in Aurora, the Colorado Supreme Court heard the appeal of the man convicted of orchestrating the killings and who now alleges numerous errors pervaded his trial. Arapahoe County jurors convicted Robert Keith Ray for the 2005 slayings of Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe. He received…
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Colorado justices to hear cases on defendant who blamed mom, car rental companies as insurers
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced last week that it will analyze whether a person can be convicted of attempting to influence a public servant when they enlist another party to perform the deceit, and whether vehicle rental companies can be held legally liable as insurers when they choose to offer insurance policies. At least three…
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Appeals judge slams Denver prosecutor for ‘Dexter’ references at trial
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One member of Colorado’s second-highest court criticized a Denver prosecutor on Thursday for repeatedly comparing a defendant’s actions to the television show “Dexter” during a jury trial. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals declined to order a new murder trial for defendant Joseph Alden Corey. The majority conceded the prosecutor’s references to a…
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Mesa County judge wrongly ordered murder defendant to pay $3,600 for DNA testing, says appeals court
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A Mesa County judge improperly ordered a defendant to pay nearly $3,600 for DNA testing in his homicide prosecution without a legal basis for doing so, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last month. Richard Alan VanderVelde pleaded guilty in 2023 to second-degree murder and related offenses after killing his mother, Sylvia Frens, in 2018. Although VanderVelde was…
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Appeals court rejects notion that coroners’ conclusions preempt other evidence of murder
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week that an “undetermined” cause of death from a county coroner does not preclude prosecutors from presenting their own evidence that the death was actually a homicide. In the case before the Court of Appeals, Denver jurors convicted Robert W. Feldman in 2022 of murdering his wife, Stacy Feldman. He is…
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Colorado Supreme Court to hear appeal claiming race-based prosecution
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday it will review whether a juvenile defendant who was tried and convicted of murder as an adult was entitled to have the case dismissed because the government allegedly engaged in selective, race-based prosecution. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to take up a case…
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Colorado Supreme Court rules technical oversight does not imperil Denver murder conviction
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The Colorado Supreme Court decided on Monday that no specific procedure is required to designate a witness as an expert at trial, and the fact that a trial judge neglected to do so in front of the jury did not warrant reversal of a man’s murder conviction. Denver jurors convicted Pete Paul Martinez of stabbing 77-year-old Lewis Easterday to…
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Adams County murder conviction overturned for unreliable identification of suspect
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Colorado’s second-highest court last week overturned a man’s murder conviction and ordered a new trial after finding a witness’s identification, based on a suggestive photo array, was unreliable and should have been excluded from trial. On the night of Jan. 30, 2018, two men fought with Ricardo Rivas in the parking lot of his Westminster…