Judging by a series of mug shots online, Atlantis Michaelson, age 41, has a thing for changing his appearance — perhaps in the hope of escaping responsibility for past offenses. Too bad for him that changing DNA isn’t nearly so easy. Michaelson was recently arrested in Virginia (where he was…
More than a year ago, we told you about the slaying of Andrea Roan, a much-loved elementary school teacher. Roan was allegedly killed by Ryan Miller, an ex-boyfriend against whom she’d requested a protection order. Now, Miller’s been sentenced for the crime, joining Richard Leavitt, who’d been previously given a…
Beginning last month, the Lakewood Police Department issued regular alerts about David Noren, who was last seen on May 19 — and the urgency increased as investigators became increasingly convinced something bad had happened to him. Now, the mystery of Noren’s whereabouts have been solved, albeit tragically: His body was…
Any government functionary worth his or her bennies knows that the ideal time for a document dump — a release of some embarrassing matter you really don’t want to talk about — is late on Friday afternoon. And that goes double for the report Colorado Attorney General John Suthers saw…
Last July, Dean Carlson was arrested after driving the wrong way on a road near Boulder and causing a crash that left Daniel Mays, 28, gravely injured. Carlson registered nearly triple the legal limit for driving drunk; his record included three prior DUIs. Mays was in a coma for most…
On June 9, 1993 — twenty years ago yesterday — six-year-old Broderick Bell was hit by a random gunshot, kicking off what came to be known as Denver’s Summer of Violence. As can be seen in this 2006 photo, Bell survived, but many others haven’t during the summers that have…
Year four of our Mile High Murder archive, which ended on May 17, was so brutal that we had to break our annual wrap-up into two parts; click here for part one, here for part two. Since then, we haven’t had a single Denver-metro entry. But unfortunately, our streak of…
Governor John Hickenlooper confounded death-penalty advocates and opponents alike last month when he granted a reprieve but not clemency to Nathan Dunlap, who’d been scheduled for execution in August for the 1993 murders of four people. Now David Isberg is hoping the governor will intervene to prevent another “death sentence”…
Back in April, we told you about the Hot Sulphur Springs shooting death of Joshua Stevens at the hands of a prominent couple — a lieutenant with the Grand County Sheriff’s Office and a prosecutor for the 14th Judicial District. Now, Jefferson County DA Pete Weir has ruled that the…
Since we were children, we’ve been trained to think of firefighters as heroic figures who earn our trust by putting the welfare of others before their own. But if the information contained in an arrest affidavit on view below is accurate, Denver firefighter Ronald Asciutto broke that trust in a…
When we designated Bridgette Sandoval a Schmuck of the Week back in February, we admitted that we weren’t sure if her excuse for a police chase and failed escape — she claimed she’d been forcibly injected with heroin and meth — was brilliant or crazy. A better word, we now…
Last week, we told you about the manhunt for Steve Pierce, a convicted sex offender wanted for allegedly molesting a nine-year-old family member; see our previous coverage below. Now, Pierce has been captured a long way from home, at a location in Washington state. But even as law enforcers travel…
James Holmes, accused of killing twelve people and wounding seventy at a July 2012 screening of The Dark Knight Rises at an Aurora theater, has been allowed to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. Judge William Sylvester had previously entered a plea of not guilty on Holmes’s behalf. At…
This months roundup of memorable mug shots is an extremely eclectic collection. Those represented include nationally known accused criminals, a celebrity, a collegiate athlete, a law enforcer accused of having gone awry, a man who many hoped would be dead within months, and a slew of others unknown to the…
The Denver Police Department is on the lookout for 25-year-old Christina Santos — not due to anything she’s done, but because of what was done to her. Early this morning, Santos was reportedly grabbed by her boyfriend and forced into his vehicle against her will. Their whereabouts is currently unknown,…
Steve Pierce’s first arrest for a sex crime took place when he was just twelve years old. And the Thornton Police Department feels confident he hasn’t grown out of this abominable habit despite the decades that have passed, not to mention numerous additional run-ins with the law. Pierce is now…
Update: More information is emerging about the tragic murder of Routt County’s Asher Lesyshen-Kirlan, age nine. According to local law-enforcement reports, Asher’s parents, Lisa Marie Lesyshen and Michael Kirlan, were going through a separation at the time Lisa shot Asher multiple times, killing him. Afterward, she told Michael to come…
Tomorrow’s scheduled hearing in the case of accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes has been postponed until Tuesday, June 4. The purpose of the hearing is so the judge can advise Holmes about “the effect and consequences” of entering an insanity plea. Once the judge has done so, he’ll decide…
The judge in the case of accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes has ruled that Colorado’s insanity plea laws are constitutional. In doing so, Judge Carlos Samour rejected arguments by Holmes’s attorneys that the laws are unconstitutional partly because they bar a defendant from calling his own experts to testify…
A hearing today in the case of accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes dealt with one question: If Holmes, who has indicated that he’d like to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, does not cooperate with a court-ordered mental examination, should he be allowed to call his own expert…
When Governor John Hickenlooper announced yesterday that he’s offering a reprieve to Nathan Dunlap, who was convicted in 1996 of killing four people at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant, he never uttered Dunlap’s name. Instead, he chose to call him “offender number 89148,” reasoning that he’d already gotten enough notoriety…
Yesterday, in announcing a reprieve for quadruple murderer Nathan Dunlap noted that Lisa Clements remains against the death penalty even after what happened to her husband, the late Colorado prison chief Tom Clements. What happened to Clements is that Evan Ebel allegedly murdered him, then took off for Texas, where…
