Joshua Beckius is 21 years old and living in limbo. When he was sixteen, he received a forty-year sentence for second-degree murder and was immediately placed among adult prisoners in the Buena Vista Correctional Facility. There, he attacked another inmate. The next stop was the Colorado State Penitentiary, where he…
Dayton James’s daughters were the center of his life, and he was the strong and certain linchpin of theirs. Although he and their mother divorced when the girls were small, James saw Darcy and Daytona every week. He took them bowling or to dinner; he let them select movies. Sometimes…
Josh Beckius was fourteen years old when Dayton James was killed in an armed robbery at Boulder’s Basemar Cinema Savers; prosecutors believe Beckius served as a lookout. He was sixteen when he was sentenced — as an adult — to forty years in prison. By contrast, the three teenagers who…
The state health department has proposed a settlement in a bitter dispute over water pollution from natural-gas wells in Las Animas County, but federal environmental officials say Colorado has gone easy on the polluter, and at least one person wonders if the administration of Governor Bill Owens — who worked…
Editor’s note: In the early hours of March 22, 2000, a mysterious intruder entered our offices through the unguarded lackeys’ entrance, consumed all the beer in the fridge, slapped 2,183 tiny luminous stars on our ceiling and left the following diary excerpts, which were written on stationery swiped from the…
The son also rises: Senatorial progeny Colin Lee (don’t call me Nighthorse) Campbell has been raking in the gubernatorial appointments. In December, Governor Bill Owens asked him to serve on the eleven-member Colorado Utility Consumers Board, which makes recommendations on policies to the Office of Consumer Counsel, and in February…
Once in a while, someone comes into Johnny’s Newsstand who is not a regular customer. Imagine! The Johnny of Johnny’s Newsstand is Johnny Kareski, and such occurrences fascinate him. Exhibit A: “Check this out,” he says, from behind the cash register where he keeps a guitar, sheet music, his first…
In late 1996, just days after their six-year-old daughter JonBenét was found murdered in their Boulder home, John and Patsy Ramsey hired Pat Korten of Rowan & Blewitt, a Washington, D.C.-based firm adept at crisis management — a specialty perfectly appropriate for the situation in which the Ramseys found themselves…
Late in the second round Friday night, native son Stevie Johnston’s left eyelid was gushing a torrent. He knew it was time. Circling left, he caught Julio Alvarez with a stiff right hook that startled the Mexican, then shot a straight left to the chin that sealed Julio’s fate. “I…
“Sight Unseen,” by Eric Dexheimer, March 16, 2000 I was appalled when I read Eric Dexheimer’s story about Carole Abbott. It is bad enough that she did not protect her daughter, but that she is also a so-called “expert” in child abuse is truly horrifying! Her husband may wind up…
In the unhappy and shameful world of sexual abuse, the case brought by Denver cops in the first week of November last year barely rated at all. It began with a private complaint to friends — known as an “outcry” among professionals in the field. Late last summer, the now-22-year-old…
By now, most of the state knows who John Fielder is. Anyone who has been inside a local bookstore, read the Rocky Mountain News, watched News4, done business with Norwest Bank, passed the Colorado History Museum or opened their Public Service Company bill has certainly come across his name and…
William Henry Jackson, 1843-1942 Job before becoming a photographer: Civil War soldier, bullwhacker for a freighting company along the Oregon Trail. Beginning of photography career: Opened a studio in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1868. Moved to Denver: 1880. Name of company: W.H. Jackson Photo Co. Corporate sponsors: Union Pacific Railroad, Hayden…
On the afternoon of June 10, 1999, suspected drug dealer Xavier Davis was puttering around Aurora in his silver Hyundai when he received a call on his cell phone from his buddy Nathan Brown, aka “Lil’ Nate.” Lil’ Nate, FBI agents believe, was looking to purchase dope from Davis, who…
One frigid night in December, hundreds of people stood shivering in what seemed to be an endless line outside the Denver Zoo. The people driving by looked on in envy. Sure, they were warm, but they weren’t going to get to see the holiday light display. They were too busy…
Former Central High School student Terry Mosley was found not guilty of first-degree assault by an Adams County jury last Thursday. The jury deliberated for a little more than two hours before ruling that Mosley had acted in self-defense when he struck Hinkley High School student Levi Cumins with an…
There was a time in the 1960s when computers took up entire rooms. By the early 1970s, there was at least some floor space for the programmers to move around on, but they still didn’t have video screens. Instead, they had to use switches on the front of the machine…
The strange fate of one of Colorado’s most treasured historic inns is uncertain once again. The Redstone Castle, a century-old bed-and-breakfast in the Crystal River Valley west of Aspen, which was saved from the auction block last summer, is going to be sold to the highest bidder. The sad saga…
Offensive interference: The news that George W. Bush is the Denver Broncos’ new No. 1 may have come as a surprise to kicker Jason Elam, who already wears No. 1 on his jersey. And apparently former quarterback John Elway, often rumored to be a potential candidate for elected office, didn’t…
Even the Whoppers had to go. My wife and I have decided to eat “better,” so to speak, and for the next six weeks that means more protein, more veggies, more complex carbohydrates, no fat and no sugar. So she came home the other day with two Wild Oats grocery…
During a recent performance at the Lion’s Lair, vocalist/griot Gil Scott-Heron preceded his musical set with an extended riff about, among other things, a media scenario in which virtually everything has a price tag. “Now you hear, ‘The weather is brought to you by…'” he said. Grinning, he added, “Motherfucker…
“Out at Home,” by Patricia Calhoun, March 9, 2000 My heart goes out to Loi Nguyen, the subject of Patricia Calhoun’s March 9 “Out at Home.” We all make mistakes when we are young, and he has owned up to them and paid the price — seven years behind bars!…
