Bad Execution

"Basically, they came into it without the neutrality necessary to make a fair decision about who to prosecute," Lane says.

In a court hearing, Chambers admitted that she wouldn't have relied on Watson to assemble the case if she'd known about his prior dealings with a key witness; that would be "unseemly," she said. But even more puzzling is a larger gaffe involving Daniel Edwards, who works on the attorney general's capital-crimes team and was appointed by Chambers to work as a special deputy DA on the Bueno-Perez case. A mere five years ago, Edwards represented Alejandro Perez in post-trial proceedings on another murder conviction. This somehow escaped the notice of the AG's high-powered execution squad and Chambers's office — neither of which had a "conflict screening policy" in place — for months.

Once the relationship was disclosed, Perez objected to the presence of his former attorney on the team that was trying to kill him — and last June, Brinkley ruled that Edwards could continue to work on the Bueno case but was to steer clear of any matter impacting the Perez prosecution. Despite this caution, Chambers ordered Edwards to work on various areas of legal research in the Bueno case that, Edwards later admitted, could be used in the Perez case as well.

"In the back room, Mr. Edwards was providing the fodder that could be used indiscriminately by the district attorney's office and the Capital Crimes Unit in prosecuting death-penalty cases, including Mr. Edwards's own client, Mr. Perez," Brinkley wrote. "Mr. Edwards has literally switched sides."

The judge also found that the Perez prosecution team had taken a "shotgun approach" to endorsing witnesses for the trial. Contrary to the prosecution's assertions in court documents, many of the inmates listed as witnesses say they never spoke to any investigator and weren't in a position to see or hear anything related to Heird's murder. And one of the non-inmates listed as a witness is, in fact, deceased. Brinkley found that, despite the fact that thirty months have passed since Heird was killed, no one from Chambers's office had bothered to review the discovery material on each witness to see what was relevant.

For all these reasons, Brinkley decided to kick Chambers and the AG's Capital Crimes Unit off the case.

Chambers couldn't be reached for comment; a spokeswoman for her office has indicated that the DA will appeal Brinkley's ruling. If it stands, however, Brinkley's dim view of the prosecution's conduct could have far-reaching effects. If the Bueno jury returns a guilty verdict, the ethical conflicts of Watson and Edwards could provide ample ammo for appeals. The dubious financing scheme could spell trouble for the efforts to re-sentence Montour to death, too. And there's the little matter of the Perez case having to start over in new hands, with many of the witnesses whom prosecutors had planned to call in the death-penalty phase now prohibited from testifying by the judge's order.

"Their unethical behavior has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars and jeopardized future convictions," says Lane. "This is unprecedented in the state of Colorado."