Nathan Finneman is an adventurer who loves to fly — and he doesn’t shy away from the spotlight, having been featured in stories by at least two TV stations in recent years. Now, however, he’s getting the kind of attention he undoubtedly would have preferred to avoid. He’s been charged…
The Rainbow Family portrays itself as a benign group populated by people who resemble throwbacks to the hippie era. But is it actually a dangerous amalgam of humanity stocked with criminals, petty and otherwise? The latter description reflects the view of the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office following the arrest of…
Maria Alvarado-Gomez, 32, was arrested after allegedly putting rat poison in smoothies she then gave to her young daughters; she also ingested some of the substance in an attempt to end her life. A resident of Carbondale, Alvarado-Gomez is said to suffer from mental-health issues, calling into question what charges…
Court records and testimony prompted by a wave of inmate homicides at the Sterling Correctional Facility claim that SCF officers have repeatedly placed at-risk prisoners, particularly sex offenders, in life-threatening situations — and that some staff have even celled deadly enemies together to “teach a lesson,” fully expecting one inmate…
We’re learning more about the early Sunday stabbing death of Nicholas Potts just outside of Grand Junction — a horrific crime witnessed by neighbors awakened by the desperate victim. Lee McDonald has been arrested in the case, and according to a just-released arrest affidavit, the motivation appears to jealousy taken…
The Denver Police Department has released little information thus far about a double stabbing that took place around the stroke of midnight in central Denver. Here’s what we know thus far about this still-developing story. See also: Fifty homicides in year five of Mile High Murder: See where they happened…
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration maintains lists of the most wanted fugitives at each of its major offices, including the Denver branch, which covers Colorado as well as several neighboring states. The current roster features 51 people — most of them men, with a majority originally hailing from Mexico and…
When accused sexual assaulter Michael Miller was released on bond yesterday, the judge in his case ordered him not to access the Internet. However, the dating profile that allegedly connected him to at least one victim remains online at this writing, offering a stark contrast with the behavior described in…
Does the father of a victim in one death-penalty case have the right to contact family members in another capital case? And, under Colorado law, do prosecutors have any obligation to facilitate that conversation — even if the discussion isn’t going to help their cause? The questions are key to…
A prominent Boulder couple, former close friends of John and Patsy Ramsey, have filed a lawsuit seeking the full release of long-suppressed documents drafted by a grand jury investigating the 1996 murder of the Ramseys’ six-year-old daughter, JonBenet. Last fall a judge released four redacted pages from eighteen pages of…
Were Danielle Cordova, Matt Ackerman and Paul Mannaioni responsible for a hash-oil explosion that seriously burned all three of them? Or were they merely bystanders who were too badly hurt to escape along with several others seen fleeing from the fiery scene? The Denver District Attorney’s Office has charged the…
There are often advantages to doing something before anyone else — but being first isn’t always a good thing. Just ask Michael Clasen, who appears to be the first person charged under Colorado’s new revenge porn law owing to “intimate” images of an ex-girlfriend he allegedly posted on the day…
The trial of Aurora theater shooting gunman James Holmes will be postponed again. Jury selection for Holmes’s trial was scheduled to begin on October 14. However, the examiner tasked with conducting a second sanity evaluation of Holmes has requested more time to complete that examination. Instead of an August 15…
Gunfire rang out near an Aurora apartment complex late last night, shattering the quiet and ending a life. The Aurora Police Department confirms that one man is dead and a suspect is at large in the case. Here’s what we know thus far. See also: Two hit by gunfire, one…
As we’ve reported, Gordon Moench told investigators he wanted to be killed by police in an incident that ended with the wounding of two Lakewood cops. Presumably, Jeffrey Strouse felt differently in a separate officer-involved shooting. But not only has Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey determined that the Aurora officer…
Update: Yesterday, we shared information from a Lakewood Police Department spokesman about a Saturday night incident during which an apparently suicidal Gordon Moench shot two LPD officers before being taken down by one of their colleagues; see our previous coverage below. We’ve now obtained Moench’s arrest affidavit, on view here,…
Prosecutors in the Aurora theater shooting case deny that they are discouraging victims from talking to lawyers for gunman James Holmes. In a recent motion (on view below), they claim they’ve told victims they’re free to speak with Holmes’s lawyers if they choose — though they add that some victims…
Thus far, the photo of Shannon Conley seen above — it’s cropped from a larger family snapshot shared by her mother, Ana Conley, on Facebook — is the only image to have surfaced since news broke that the Arvada nineteen-year-old had been arrested for trying to “provide material support and…
In April, we told you about the 22-year sentence for Lucas Piper after he tried to burn down the home of people he’d met at a String Cheese Incident concert. Now, Rachel Lewin, Piper’s girlfriend, has been given a decade-plus jail jolt of her own — and prosecutors say the…
Uruguay’s Luis Suarez is better known in these parts for being a biter than a star soccer player — and we have a feeling a thus-far-unnamed suspect currently jailed in Aurora can identify with him. He’s believed to be responsible for a burglary and a robbery (at least), but he’s…
We’ve documented plenty of shocking acts in our Colorado Crimes archive over the years, including a brutal cold-case sex assault arrest from earlier this year that could earn Eddie Simon a life sentence. But few of the allegations we’ve shared over the years have been as disturbing as the ones…
This is Alena Rust with, we think, Edwin Coriano. But this casual pose stands in contrast to their booking photos, snapped after they were arrested on charges related to the sexual trafficking of a woman against her will. Rust’s pic is included in the following roundup of June 2014’s most…
