Sandi Peterson sometimes worried about how her son Dan, who moved to Denver in 2010, was getting by in a new city. And when she flew here in July from Wisconsin, it was meaningful to meet so many of his friends at once, even if it was under the worst…
Today, three new documents were released in the case of accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes pertaining to a pair of controversies — defense attorneys’ call for sanctions against prosecutors for allegedly lying about Holmes being banned from the Anschutz Medical Campus, and a request from three shooting survivors suing…
The second-degree murder charge against Fort Collins’ Nicole Marie Ryan will likely be a complicated one to prove. The facts on the surface seem simple: Ryan appears to have slashed the throat of her fiance, Raymond Wimmer, who later bled to death. But this act was prefigured by a back…
One of the central questions in the case of accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes involves whether his attorneys will employ the insanity defense. The legal tactic has been used many times in mass slayings and other shocking crimes, and not always effectively: Note that serial killers John Wayne Gacy…
Update below: Families representing eleven of the twelve people who died in the Aurora theater shooting have asked Colorado’s attorney general and secretary of state to investigate Community First Foundation and its website, GivingFirst.org, which collected more than $5 million in donations to the Aurora Victim Relief Fund. The letter…
Just a few weeks after a honk-happy Colorado driver was arrested for harassing two cyclists on an open road in Longmont, another bike rider has been victimized — this time on a path with no cars. A barbed wire trap on a trail in South Platte Park threw a woman…
Update: Last week, we told you about a homicide in Green Valley Ranch on Wednesday evening; look below for our previous coverage. Now, the Denver coroner’s office has identified the victim as Matthew Gianopoulos, age 21. The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds. Here’s a little more about a…
Mike White is searching for answers. To find them, he hopes to return to the Aurora theater where a gunman opened fire on White, his family and others who’d come to see the July 20 midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. “I’m not sure what the questions are,” White…
In August, Gail Parrish shared her frustration about the absence of a guilty plea in the January hit and run that killed Jenna Breen, her beloved daughter. This week, however, that situation changed. Viet Nguyen, the man charged with committing the crime, finally pleaded guilty to all charges against him…
What’s creepier than a sex offender groping an unsuspecting woman who’s legally blind? A sex offender groping an unsuspecting woman who’s legally blind in front of her three-year-old son. The crime, for which James Rodgers was sentenced this week, is detailed in an arrest affidavit on view below…
No, it’s not surprising that someone would create a mask of accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes just in time for Halloween — not given the continuing fascination with the man at the center of various James Holmes is Innocent Facebook pages. But the item itself, seen from two angles…
Last week, we reported about the arrest of Dennis Esquibel in the tragic hit and run that killed Laura McDermott. Shortly thereafter, Esquibel’s mother claimed he wasn’t actually driving at the time of the collision, while the police insisted otherwise. A copy of Esquibel’s probable cause statement obtained after he…
Releasing a second mug shot of accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes violated the case’s gag order, Holmes’s attorneys argue in a new motion. A judge has granted their request for a hearing to investigate. The mug shot was “leaked to the media” on September 20, Holmes’s attorneys say –…
In their first group message focused on gun policy, family members of those who died in the Aurora theater shooting have come together to urge presidential debate moderator Jim Lehrer to press Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on the topic of firearms violence when the candidates face off in Denver…
On Friday, July 20, the day authorities say James Holmes opened fire during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, John Resig posted a note theCHIVE.com, the wildly popular photo website he founded with his brother. “If any of the victims or family members of victims are Chivers (or…
Stephen Barton, 22, never thought his future would include gun-policy work. A recent graduate of Syracuse University, Barton was planning on moving to Russia to teach English on a Fulbright Scholarship this September. That all changed when he was shot in the face on July 20 in the Aurora theater…
Update: Last week, we posted about the decision by Cinemark, owner of the Aurora Century 16, to reopen the theater where James Holmes allegedly killed twelve people and injured 58 this past July; see our previous coverage below. Now, we’ve learned more details about the Facebook survey that showed the…
Billy Joe Delacey is a U.S. Army veteran who had two war-zone deployments. But this service to his country didn’t prevent him from being indicted in relation to a brutal crime — the fatal Mesa County beating of a male escort he’s said to have met on Craigslist. See the…
A specialty of our Alan Prendergast is bringing vintage crime stories to life, as he did with his September feature “The Happiest Man on Death Row.” His look at 1920s-era Denver district attorney Phil Van Cise, “Scourge of the Underworld,” is in this tradition — and for that 2008 tale,…
A motion made public today in the James Holmes case references “the notebook and the burnt currency” when discussing whether a package sent to a psychiatrist who was seeing Holmes should be subject to doctor-patient privilege. Much of the document is redacted, including the psychiatrist’s name, though she’s been identified…
Update below: Law enforcement investigated motions filed by someone impersonating a victim in the James Holmes case, prosecutors say in one of 57 documents made public. As Westword previously reported, at least one of those motions is truly bizarre, claiming that Holmes is being “framed by Philip Anschutz, police chief…
This morning, the court released more than fifty documents in the James Holmes case that had previously been kept from public view — dating all the way back to Holmes’s application for a public defender on July 20, the day prosecutors say Holmes shot and killed twelve people and injured…
