Update below: In April, convicted child molester Richard Carl Heeringa wound up in the number four slot on Denver’s list of the top 25 most violent fugitives. Then, in July, Heeringa was added to the U.S. Marshals Service’s 15 most wanted list for the entire country. This increased heat appears…
Wrestling — the real kind, not Hulk Hogan-style dramatics — can be a dangerous sport. But what’s even riskier? Drunk wrestling. That’s the argument made by a police report about the arrest of Richard Mastic, age 27, who was taken into custody on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon…
Update, Monday, October 31: Willie Clark, who was convicted last year of murdering Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams, was found guilty again today — this time of murdering a witness named Kalonniann Clark (no relation) in 2006. Clark was sentenced to life in prison plus 424 years for the murder. He’s…
Nick Beram did everything he could to disguise himself while robbing five area banks while armed with a stun gun. During the crimes, he wore sunglasses, a dark-hooded jacket and a white surgical or dust mask. But he didn’t bother to disguise his truck — and that’s why he’s been…
Brandon Smith set out to steal an iPad shortly after the device’s release, and he did. That’s a relatively minor crime — so how did he wind up being sentenced to 25 years behind bars? By pretty much shredding the finger of the iPad purchaser, and then, after the act…
Moms teach their little girls all kinds of valuable lessons, and Cassandra Ghirardi is no exception. Problem is, Ghirardi’s tutorials allegedly involved identity theft, which, while profitable, carries the strong possibility of jail time for her and Alexandra Wilde, her daughter…
In the wild, predators don’t typically go out of their way to challenge the strongest opponents. Rather, they seek out the weakest members of the herd. Jeffrey Knouse has earned an extended stay at the Cross Bar Hotel for demonstrating this same sensibility on an 81-year-old man simply trying to…
It didn’t take long for El Paso Sheriff’s Office detectives to hone in on Mark Manyik as the shooter of Robert Miles, 55. Why? Manyik left a voicemail for a detective saying he planned to blast Miles in the belly using a shotgun, and that’s precisely what he’s accused of…
The guy juggling two dates at the same time is a sitcom staple, and it’s usually resolved in wacky fashion. But a happy ending seems unlikely in the case of Kevin Gaylor, who gave this plot a high-tech twist — by reporting a woman he’d “met” on Craigslist as a…
I first encountered Josh Beckius, subject of “Redemption,” this week’s cover story, as a photograph in the Boulder newspaper. I’d read that some teenagers had been arrested in connection with a two-year-old murder at Basemar Cinema Savers, and here he was, a dark-haired kid posing with a baseball bat, beside…
Update below: It’s a temptation pretty much every student has felt — the urge to make a bomb threat because of an impending test or an awful assignment or the feeling that there was something more important to do than go to school. Of course, most of us are able…
Society seems to have a different viewpoint about sex assaults involving an older woman and an underage male than if an older man and a teen girl are paired — but the former can certainly have tragic consequences. Case in point: the relationship between a fifteen-year-old boy who committed suicide…
A judge sentenced 25-year-old Robert Walters to life in prison without parole today for the murder of his former girlfriend, Brittney Brashers. Though the sentence was mandatory, Judge Anne Mansfield also called it “fitting” after listening to heart rending statements from Brashers’s sister and brother. “Please be patient,” her sister…
This week’s cover story, “The Victim Lobby,” delves into the growing power of the victim rights movement and the sometimes clashing agendas of groups within that movement. But there’s one issue crime victim advocates strongly agree about: The pile-up of unsolved homicides over the past few decades is alarming –…
Amanda Joliff and Richard Smith have now been formally charged with child abuse, false imprisonment and more in connection with the horrific treatment of a fourteen-year-old developmentally delayed boy. An arrest affidavit on view below recounts off-the-charts neglect in a home that comes across as an unkempt, uncleaned zoo…
Update: Early this month, Azura Lakin, 21, killed her former boyfriend, Shaun Cassidy, 23, with a beer bottle. That fact was never in dispute. But the question of whether Lakin was acting in self-defense was, until a hearing yesterday, when officials decided against filing charges — a determination that left…
This week’s cover story, “The Victim Lobby,” examines the victim rights movement in Colorado — its remarkable growth and accomplishments, as well as the controversy over who truly “speaks” for victims in court or in the legislature. But few in high places speak as powerfully, or as knowledgeably, about the…
Jo Scott is the truest of believers when it comes the fight against abortion rights — so much so that she’s repeatedly violated both state and federal laws designed to protect clinic visitors. But the level of harassment will presumably be modified now that a settlement with the Justice Department…
Lucky Stefanie Dickinson: The former Ellicott school board member has gotten to pose for two mug shots in the span of a month. The first time, Dickinson was busted for allegedly sexting a teen. And the latest? She’s being accused of sexually assaulting a teen three years ago…
Long Island-resident Varoujan Khodjamirian’s flight home from the Denver area was presumably uneventful — maybe because a judge ordered him to forego alcohol on the way back. Why this edict? Because Khodjamirian’s previous time in the air devolved into a drunken, death-threat-filled tirade that required the jet that carried him…
Update: The Denver coroner’s office has now positively identified the man killed by police following a robbery attempt at a cell-phone store as Mark Sepulveda — the suspect in the September murder of Juan Carlos in Lakewood. Likewise, the Denver Police Department has confirmed that a suspect currently in custody…
Back in September, Myrl Serra, district attorney for the 7th Judicial District, was busted on suspicion of unlawful sexual contact and other charges. Suspicion confirmed: Today, the Colorado Attorney’ General’s Office has announced that Serra has pleaded guilty to two counts, including criminal extortion…
