Crime & Police

Roman Morales originally claimed to have been insane when he fatally strangled two-year-old cousin Donnie Ro’Mello Romero Jr. at a Lakewood apartment in September 2015. But the jury hearing the case ultimately found Morales guilty of first-degree murder under the theory that his bizarre behavior, including claims that he’d somehow been ordered to kill the child, was actually a symptom of psychosis spurred by meth use.

A fire at the former home of Donthe Lucas, a suspect in the disappearance of Kelsie Schelling more than four years ago, is being investigated as potential arson, raising speculation about a potential link to her case that police are trying to dampen. In the meantime, a fire department spokesperson confirms that the current residents of the house were home at the time the blaze erupted and sprang into action to put it out before more permanent damage was done.

Christian Gulzow, the Denver-area death metal scenester accused of murdering Brian Lucero in the parking lot of Torchy’s Tacos on May 23 while wearing white facial makeup and gloves with blades protruding from the fingers, was reported to police last year for threatening to kill another local musician, Akira Jadexx. However, no action appears to have been taken against Gulzow as a result of this contact, and he continued to harass Jadexx intermittently until mere months before his arrest for Lucero’s slaying.

Days after revealing that CU Buffs head football coach Mike MacIntyre would make a $100,000 donation to a domestic-violence fund to acknowledge mistakes made related to assault accusations against former assistant coach Joe Tumpkin, the University of Colorado’s Board of Regents has approved a five-year contract extension that will give him a raise of nearly $1 million per annum, plus an additional $100,000 on the last day of 2021, when the pact expires. The timing of these announcements suggests that mea culpas delivered earlier this week were intended to serve as cover for the head coach in the matter involving Tumpkin, who remained on the CU payroll for nearly a month after MacIntyre first spoke to the victim of what she describes as more than 100 assaults.

Denver police officers have arrested a man suspected of unlawful sexual contact on the 16th Street Mall and are currently looking for more potential victims in at least the third incident of its type over the past two years at the iconic shopping stop and tourist attraction.

Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, and yesterday, June 14, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann and Denver Police Department Lieutenant Adam Hernandez announced new initiatives to combat elder and at-risk adult abuse, which includes abuse of those suffering from intellectual and mental disabilities.

Adams County District Attorney Dave Young has announced his intention to charge the fifteen-year-old suspected of murdering Thornton’s Kiaya Campbell, age ten, earlier this month as an adult. By doing so, he’s following in the footsteps of many previous Colorado prosecutors who’ve taken alleged juvenile killers to adult court. Below, see fourteen examples of what happened when they did.

On Monday afternoon, Mayor Michael Hancock and Executive Director of Public Safety Stephanie O’Malley stood on the steps of the City and County Building, along with many community members, to announce the initiative Safe Haven.

In an extraordinary attempt to save the job of CU Boulder head football coach Mike MacIntyre, who is credited with turning around a gridiron program that’s struggled since a recruiting scandal in the early 2000s, the university has suspended chancellor Phil DiStefano for ten days and mandated that MacIntyre and athletic director Rick George make $100,000 donations to a domestic-violence fund over the mishandling of abuse charges against ex-assistant coach Joe Tumpkin.

Sienna Johnson has pleaded guilty to two charges, one juvenile and one adult, in relation to an alleged Columbine-style plot against Mountain Vista High School circa December 2015. Her sentence is similar to, but slightly longer than, the one meted out against Brooke Higgins, her accused co-conspirator, this past February.

New Colorado theft data reveals that three of the five most stolen vehicles in the state are trucks. This marks the most top-five appearances by pickups in at least three years.

Monica Abeyta, thirty, was arrested on Saturday, June 3, in Colorado Springs after her three-year-old son shot his two-year-old brother. At last report, the injured child was in stable condition following the latest incident of children from Colorado being hurt or killed after finding an unsecured gun. Here are five additional examples as seen in excerpts from our previous coverage, as well as additional details about the Abeyta matter.

James Pennington is the kind of person who would probably jump off a bridge if a friend told him to. Earlier this month, Pennington removed the testicles of a transgender woman in a Denver apartment at her behest. Pennington isn’t a licensed doctor in Colorado, according to 9NEWS. He’s a…

Christian Gulzow, the man arrested for the fatal stabbing of Brian Lucero in the parking lot of Torchy’s Tacos on May 23, is described by two members of The Undertakers, a Denver metal band with which he was once associated, as obsessed with demons, weapons and musical fame that was beyond his ability. They also say that after ending their friendship with him, Gulzow reacted by unleashing violent warnings that are even more disturbing given the current allegations against him.

Brian Lucero has been identified as the victim of a fatal stabbing in the parking lot of Torchy’s Tacos, near the intersection of 11th and Broadway early on May 23. His alleged killer, Christian Gulzow, a Denver-area death metal singer with a substantial criminal record, has been arrested in the death of Lucero, a transient whose fate is evidence of the dangers regularly faced by members of the homeless community.

The man identified by Denver police as Christian Gulzow, the suspect in the fatal stabbing of Brian Lucero in the Torchy’s Tacos parking lot early on May 23, is known online as both Christöf Gülzow and Nürüm Bellüm, a death metal vocalist. His various social media platforms feature multiple images of him with white makeup and gloves with long tips of the sort allegedly worn by the killer in the case, and a video on his Instagram account includes violent and bloody knifings.

Since the election of President Trump in November 2016, there has been an uptick in hate crimes across the nation. Denver is no exception, with some notable examples: Eight days after the election, on November 16, a transgender woman in Capitol Hill found her car spray-painted with swastikas and the…

Working at a for-profit Colorado prison made an indelible impression on Sue Binder, who became convinced that management was more interested in keeping the place as full —and profitable — as possible than helping inmates prepare for release or treating staff fairly.

The Denver Police Department has launched a series of videos intended to reveal myths about sex offenders in the Mile High City. Detective David Bourgeois, who stars in the clips, provided Westword with additional details about myths exposed in the first installment, on view below, and previews future episodes, revealing, for example, that not every registered sex offender can be found online.