The Denver District Attorney’s Office doesn’t accuse Wayne Sperling and Lorinda Bailey of beating their children — boys ages two, four, five and six, all described as so developmentally delayed that none of them could speak. But prosecutors believe their living conditions constituted child abuse — and Sperling’s arrest affidavit…
Target practice using a bow and arrows isn’t usually a problem. But there are exceptions. For instance, hoteliers will likely frown on anyone who takes aim inside a rented room, and they’re even less apt to be understanding if the guest’s response to a request to stop is threatening to…
Last month, we told you about Rhonda Bernard, who was charged with animal cruelty for keeping 26 cats, 23 chihuahuas and two chinchillas in the Fremont County home she shared with her ten-year-old son. The number of animals that led to similar accusations against Ken, Linds and Karla Rumery, as…
Between January 2009 and September 2013, there were nearly two mass shootings per month in the U.S., according to a new report by Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The incidents described in the report include the July 2012 shooting at the Century 16 theater in Aurora, which left twelve dead and…
Years of television viewing has trained most of us to believe that being shot in the arm isn’t serious. In fact, heroes hit there tend to shrug it off entirely, as they would a mosquito bite. Things don’t always work that way in the real world, though. Case in point:…
On October 5, 2012, just shy of one year ago, Jessica Ridgeway, ten, disappeared from her Westminster neighborhood while walking to school. The following week, her “not intact” remains were found in an open space area — and before the month was out, seventeen-year-old Austin Sigg was arrested for the…
Late last night, the CU-Boulder Police Department announced that it was investigating a possible armed kidnapping. But this morning, a CUPD spokesman tells us there have been no missing persons reported at the school, or in the City and County of Boulder. Did it really happen? That’s unknown at this…
Our crime reporting during the month of September touched on everything from the bust of a new Broncos star to some startling crimes allegedly committed by unlikely people, including Isabella Guzman, seen here. What’s her story? Look below to see the twenty most memorable booking photos of the month, complete…
Marijuana attorney Rob Corry seeks PR for events like free-joint giveaways in Denver and Boulder — part of his campaign against Prop AA, a marijuana taxation measure. Lately, though, he’s also appeared in the news for incidents he’d undoubtedly have preferred to keep on the down-low, including a June arrest…
Accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes was in court today for a brief hearing. Among the most interesting tidbits of news was that prosecutors have 4,000 potential witnesses lined up for Holmes’s February trial. To prepare their cross-examination, defense attorneys have asked prosecutors for a “good faith” list of which…
Kenneth Royal Wheeler was apparently under the illusion that he could post anything on Facebook, no matter how objectionable, as long as he was out of the country. Not exactly. A jury in U.S. District Court has found Wheeler guilty in regard to Facebook threats targeting police officers related to…
Macyo January was four months shy of turning eighteen when he allegedly murdered a pregnant woman and her husband during a burglary earlier this year. But a judge has ruled that he’ll be treated as if he’d already celebrated his birthday. January will be tried as an adult for the…
In a blog post written several months after a 2011 listeria outbreak linked to cantaloupe grown at Colorado’s Jensen Farms caused 33 deaths and 147 hospitalizations, attorney Bill Marler, who represents 46 families in the case, wrote that criminal indictments after such incidents are as “rare as hen’s teeth.” Yet…
Fort Carson soldier Richard Sheltra’s guilty plea for having sex with a thirteen year old would be shocking in and of itself. But other elements of the story make it even more disturbing. For instance, Sheltra, seen here and in additional photos below, is the second Fort Carson soldier to…
There doesn’t appear to be much mystery about who killed 42-year-old Denzle Rainey. According to a police report, Forsythia Owen, thirty, has admitted to beating Rainey to death using a baseball bat. However, Owen has told authorities she committed this gruesome act because Rainey had molested a child — an…
In July 2012, we told you about the arrest of Marquis Garrison in the death of his two-month-old daughter, as well as the decision to pursue a first-degree-murder charge in addition to a child-abuse-resulting-in-death count. A likely reason: A probable-cause statement on view below says he tried to make the…
Today, on the National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims, families and loved ones of those whose lives were so cruelly cut short, including Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, whose sister was slain in 2002, will gather from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. outside the new Denver Crime Lab, 1371 Cherokee…
When he was a Tae Kwon Do instructor, Raul Gutierrez-Hernandez was known as “Master Raul,” and he was clearly skilled at martial arts, winning honors in the United States and Mexico. Now, however, a local district attorney has branded Gutierrez-Hernandez “gutless” — because rather than waiting to hear a jury’s…
As we reported yesterday, Terrance Roberts, a former gang leader who’d transformed himself into an inspirational anti-gang activist, was arrested for a shooting at a Friday unity rally he’d planned. We’ve now obtained the probable cause statement in the case (see it below), and in it, Roberts claims he acted…
“Terrance Roberts is one of Denver’s great comeback stories,” Westword’s Joel Warner wrote back in January. “A one-time shot-caller in the Park Hill Bloods,” Roberts, now 37, had turned his life around and founded the Prodigal Son Initiative, an anti-gang youth program in northeast Park Hill. When a 2008 gang-related…
While mug shots vary widely from community to community, jurisdiction to jurisdiction, they usually share one quality: The person they picture is centered in the frame. Not so school-bust driver Burton Carpenter. In the image seen here, and in a larger version below, he appears to be supporting himself by…
At 4:30 a.m. today, Lakewood Police Department and West Metro SWAT reps took custody of Sean Wyles, a wanted fugitive linked to the 211 prison gang. Wyles didn’t go easily. According to LPD Detective Ryan McKone, he claimed law enforcers would never take him alive, prompting a standoff that lasted…
