Earlier today, we told you that the birdshot pellet put up for sale by Aurora theater shooting survivor Carli Richards sold for the asking price of $1,650. Westword has since spoken with the man who bought it, Georgia-based forensic consultant Anthony Meoli. Meoli says he bought the pellet to help…
Would you die for your cellphone? Jordan Hough nearly did. Two men stole Hough’s phone while he was on an RTD bus, and rather than letting them get away with it, he gave chase — and he found out why police warn against taking the law into your own hands…
Update: Shortly after the publication of our post about Aurora theater shooting survivor Carli Richards deciding to sell a pellet removed from her body after being wounded by gunman James Holmes, we received word via e-mail from SerialKillersInk.net owner Eric Holler revealing that the pellet had been purchased by “a…
Update: Last week, we told you about the officer-involved shooting of a man who’d allegedly robbed a Fast-N-Friendly outlet in Aurora; see our previous coverage below. Now, the Aurora Police Department has identified the person killed as 39-year-old Kavonda Earl Payton — and there’s a very large difference between his…
Scripps News recently crunched numbers on unsolved U.S. murders and discovered that the total of 200,000-plus since 1980 actually exceeds the population of Des Moines, Iowa. The data also reveals which states do the best job of solving homicides, and Colorado’s ranking is mediocre, with 26 states cracking a higher…
In 2013, we told you about Boobies Rock!, an organization that sent hot women into bars wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the company’s name — and they told customers to whom they sold branded merchandise that the money they collected would go toward fighting breast cancer. But Colorado’s Attorney General branded…
On a chilly morning like this one, a lot of us are tempted to start a car parked on the street and leave it running for a few minutes while we finish up inside. Here’s a story demonstrating why that’s a bad idea: A puffer car that was stolen yesterday…
As we’ve reported, Denver police Officer John Adsit was critically injured in a crash that took place while he was on crowd-control duty during a December 3 East High School student walk-out prompted by a Ferguson, Missouri grand jury’s no-indictment decision in the shooting death of Michael Brown. He remains…
The first batch of prospective jurors in the Aurora theater shooting case reported for jury duty this afternoon. They listened to introductory remarks about the case from Judge Carlos Samour and then filled out an eighteen-page questionnaire that will help the judge and attorneys choose who will serve on the…
Today marks two weeks since a bomb went off outside the building that houses the NAACP offices in Colorado Springs, and while a suspect’s sketch was released days later, no arrests have been made. To emphasize the need for progress in the case, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks, who’s been…
Jury selection in the trial of Aurora theater shooter James Holmes is scheduled to start the afternoon of Tuesday, January 20, when the first 250 of 9,000 summoned prospective jurors will report to the courthouse. Out of those 9,000, 24 people — twelve jurors and twelve alternates — will be…
Our Schmuck of the Week team recently offered a tip of the hat to the Denver Police Department for Facebooking the story of Andrew Blackman, whose escape from the cops went sour when he ran straight to a police station. And it’s hardly the only tale of its type to…
Pueblo’s Phenia Martinez, 25, had multiple Facebook pages, with one of them dominated by photos of young children — and as the new year dawned, she was preparing to welcome a new life, being eight-months pregnant. But before this blessed event could take place, she was brutally murdered — and…
Colorado may have more than its share of hash-oil explosions these days, but the number of fiery meth-lab accidents here is among the lowest in the country. A recent survey in Missouri shows that while some states experienced well over 1,000 incidents, with more than 11,000 taking place nationwide, Colorado…
Offensive lineman Isaiah Holland hasn’t played a snap for the CU Buffs football team, but he’s a promising recruit with an NFL pedigree (his dad has a Super Bowl ring) from whom big things were expected. Not so much anymore. Holland has been suspended from the team indefinitely after allegedly…
Melissa Boyd had quite an evening of it this past Saturday. She was busted after a crash in which she’s alleged to have drunkenly hit and run — and shortly thereafter, authorities learned she’d left her eleven-month-old baby home alone while she did it. Continue for photos, video and details…
Update: Yesterday, when we told you about the arrest of Robert Richard Beattie Smith on suspicion of sexual assault while posing as a massage therapist (see our previous coverage below), we noted that Aurora police feared the existence of additional victims. Apparently, they were right: Five women have contacted investigators…
It’s distressingly rare for cold cases to heat up decades after they were committed — and when they do, as with the death of Jacqueline Gallegos, whose killer was brought to justice twenty years after her passing, the reason is often improvements in DNA technology. Officials in Summit County are…
In October 2013, we told you about a massive search for a child kidnapper and the subsequent arrest of John Snorsky, whose friends insisted he was innocent. Snorsky, who had previously told a Westword reporter about his time in prison and difficult childhood, eventually pleaded guilty in the case. But…
UPDATE: Third Judicial District Attorney Frank Ruybalid has reached a settlement in a state ethics investigation of his office. Ruybalid admitted to thirteen violations of Colorado’s rules for professional conduct of attorneys, and received a suspended six-month suspension of his law license and 23 months of probation. According to a…
In 2013, we told you about Robert Gonzales, who was accused of pimping a foster child for cash and meth. Gonzales has now been given a 112-years-to-life sentence — a jolt that strikes one of the jurors who found him guilty as excessive in the extreme. And indeed, Thomas White,…
Judging by his online postings, Daerius Churchill, 22, was a relentlessly positive person who was beloved by his family and friends — which makes his murder on Sunday (days before yesterday’s double-homicide at a Colorado Coalition for the Homeless-run building) that much more cruel. The Denver Police Department is reaching…
