Angel Eyes

Having a high-profile attorney certainly doesn't hurt. Justin's lawyer, Forrest Lewis, has represented some of Colorado's most notorious criminals, including Nathan Dunlap, who gunned down five Chuck E. Cheese's employees in 1993; Robert Harlan, who was convicted in 1995 of raping and murdering one woman and shooting a good Samaritan who tried to help; and Danny Martinez, one of the gang members who raped, tortured and murdered fourteen-year-old Brandy DuVall before dumping her body in Clear Creek Canyon. Lewis, who told Westword he can't talk about Justin's case until after the trial, also defended Stephen Martinez, another man charged with shaking a baby to death. Like Justin McIntosh, Stephen Martinez confessed to police, telling them he couldn't get his girlfriend's four-month-old baby to stop crying.

Martinez's case led to a Colorado Supreme Court decision allowing medical experts to explain the severity of injuries associated with Shaken Baby Syndrome. During Martinez's case, an expert compared the baby's injuries to what she would have suffered had she fallen from a tall building or been involved in a high-speed car crash. In December 2001, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that the testimony was irrelevant and should have been excluded, overturning Martinez's January 2000 first-degree-murder conviction. But in July 2003, the state's highest court overruled the appellate court decision on testimony and reinstated Martinez's original conviction. The ruling was hailed as a victory by prosecuting attorneys, who had seen an eighteen-month hiatus in shaken-baby filings while the decision was pending.

Since then, several more shaken-baby and child-abuse cases have made headlines in Colorado. A hearing was held recently to determine what kind of testimony will be admissible when Joseph Dowler stands trial November 10 on first-degree-murder charges for allegedly shaking his eight-week-old son, Tanner, to death. Laura Trujillo was convicted in September of child abuse resulting in injury for failing to protect her two-year-old daughter from being beaten to death by her boyfriend. Samuel Renner was charged with child abuse resulting in death for allegedly shaking Davey Crespin, a seven-month-old he was babysitting. Demetrius White Sr. was recently charged with child abuse resulting in death for allegedly beating his three-month-old son, Demetrius Jr. And Rebekah Amaya is facing two counts of first-degree murder in the drowning deaths of her two children, five-month-old Gabriel and four-year-old Grace.

Caleena's supporters hope that in Justin's case, justice will be served. But Patrice worries that he'll plead to a lesser charge, something she's seen happen many times in her two decades of law enforcement. "He'll probably get his hands slapped, go to anger management, pay a fine and do probation," she says.

While DA spokesman Knight says a plea bargain is always a possibility, he "can't envision a scenario where he'd plead to something with no jail time."

Caleena says she can't concern herself with what happens to Justin. She needs to focus on herself right now.

Three days after Jasmine died, Caleena went back to the condo she and Justin had shared. She was planning to stay with a friend and needed to get her things, but she couldn't get in because Janice McIntosh had already changed the locks. She was eventually able to get her stuff before Justin's parents rented the apartment, but then they sold the car she'd been driving. It was in Justin's name, but Caleena had made $1,500 in car payments while he was unemployed. And because questions had been raised about her fitness as a mother after the Kempe Children's Center examined Alyssa, social workers placed the toddler with Caleena's mom. In a matter of days, Caleena had lost everything: her house, her car and her kids. And she was only twenty years old.

Soon she felt like she was losing her mind, too. She couldn't go to a grocery store without breaking down when she saw a baby, and she got fired from her waitressing job at the Greeley Country Club because of her emotional outbursts. "I must have looked like a crazy person crying," she says. Her mental state didn't make her a very good roommate, either, and she bounced from friend's house to friend's house. Half the time, her parents didn't even know where she was.

Just before her nineteenth birthday and before she met Justin, she had been trying to clean up her life. She was thinking about volunteering at a treatment center for youth offenders. But after Jasmine died, she found herself reverting to her old ways. Broke, Caleena forged Justin's name on a withdrawal slip and left a bank drive-through with $1,100 from his checking account. And later, when she was pulled over for speeding, she presented a driver's license that she'd borrowed from a friend (hers had been revoked because of prior traffic offenses). She paid the ticket, but after she and her friend got into a fight, the friend turned her in for impersonation.

"I kind of did a 180 after this happened," Caleena admits. "This has totally destroyed my life. I don't think I'll ever be the same again.

"To sleep next to someone for almost a year and not know they're even remotely capable of something like this..." she says, pausing. "I have a hard time giving anyone the benefit of the doubt anymore, and I'm constantly afraid that something bad is going to happen."