According to the 17th Judicial District DA's office, Adams County Juvenile Court Judge Priscilla Loew ruled that the case should be moved to adult court following a four-day hearing that ended yesterday, January 23.
Zellmer has been accused of first-degree murder after deliberation, first-degree murder by a person in a position of trust, two counts of felony murder, one count of sexual assault on a child and two counts of felony sexual assault. He's scheduled to be advised of the charges against him at 11 a.m. today, January 24, in Division Q of Adams County District Court.
Although news outlets like this one have not previously published Zellmer's moniker, information about him has been lingering online since shortly after June 8, 2017, when Campbell's body was discovered about a mile from her father's home, near the intersection of Jasmine Street and East 128th Avenue.
An Everipedia item in his name includes the two family photos seen here, as well as a screen shot of Zellmer's now-deleted Facebook page, which is nothing if not typical. As you can see, pics include Deadpool and Chucky, the lethal doll from the Child's Play movies, plus a reference to both the teen's actual middle school (Vikan, located in Brighton) and a job working at a fictional eatery from SpongeBob SquarePants.
The page points out that Zellmer was attending Horizon High School in Thornton at the time of the slaying. In addition, the teen has a twin brother, and his father, Demmie Joseph Olvera, is overtly religious; he waved a crucifix during a court appearance while saying the word "Jesus" to the assembled media.
In our previous coverage, we documented fifteen cases of Colorado juveniles being prosecuted as adults. Of those, only three were as young or younger than Zellmer at the time they committed crimes, and two of the homicides date back to the early 1990s, as seen in the following excerpt from an article in the defunct Rocky Mountain News:
Nov. 4, 1992 — Thomas ''T.J.'' White, 15, and Marcus Fernandez, 16, killed state Trooper Lyle Wohlers. White is sentenced to consecutive 16-year terms for accessory to murder. Fernandez is sentenced to life without parole.A more recent example of this phenomenon took place in 2013, when fifteen-year-old Miguel Ita allegedly stabbed and killed Jose Barrera-Mendoza, 22. The case began in juvenile court, but the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office filed for it to be moved to the adult system — and it was.
Oct. 31, 1993 — Paul English, 14, shot and killed Carl Banks Jr., 18, in Park Hill, as he was shepherding a group of trick-or-treaters. He was sentenced to 48 years in prison.
Ita was convicted in 2015. He is now nineteen and listed as an inmate at the Fremont Correctional Facility. His estimated parole eligibility date is June 16, 2034.
We don't yet know if a similar sentence is in Zellmer's future. But the 17th Judicial District DA's office stresses that "the filing of a criminal charge is merely a formal accusation that an individual committed a crime under Colorado laws. A defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty."
