Errors in hundreds of Colorado prison sentences, audit says

Published May 14, 2013

Associated Press

DENVER –  A new audit finds that hundreds of Colorado inmates may be serving incorrect sentences due to clerical errors.

The review is still ongoing but has already led prison officials to warn judges that 281 people might have been given sentences that are incorrect. That includes some people who have already left prison and are either on parole or in halfway houses.

Prison officials say judges have already adjusted 56 different sentences.

Gov. John Hickenlooper ordered the audit after it was revealed that a man suspected of killing Colorado's prisons director was released four years early because his sentence was incorrectly recorded by the courts.

There are still more than 2,000 cases awaiting review in the audit.

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Remains in Colorado car identified as man missing since 1987

Published May 14, 2013

Associated Press

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. –  Authorities in western Colorado say a human skeleton found in a partially buried car belongs to a man who was reported missing 26 years ago.

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports the Mesa County Coroner's Office identified the man on Monday as 65-year-old Ronald Vasey. He went missing in 1987.

The sheriff's department says someone hiking near John Brown Canyon Road, near Gateway, called 911 at about 6 p.m. Thursday to report a crashed vehicle below a cliff. The old station wagon was roughly 100 feet off the roadway, and it was partially obscured by rocks and sediment that presumably washed down over the years.

Deputies found personal items in the car, including clothing and credit cards.

The coroner's office says it appears Vasey committed suicide.

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Colorado avalanche survivor buried for 4 hours with only 1 arm free

Published April 24, 2013

Associated Press

GEORGETOWN, Colo. –  The sole survivor of an avalanche that killed five men in Colorado was fully buried in snow except for his left arm, which allowed him to clear snow from his face so he could breathe.

The final report on the slide released Wednesday said the man was stranded for about four hours before rescuers arrived to free him near Loveland Pass.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center said the slide, the state's deadliest since 1962, was large enough to bury or destroy a car.

The center's report said one of the victims was buried 10 to 12 feet deep.

The center has previously said the avalanche was the type caused by a weak snow layer that can be buried deep in the snowpack.

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Colorado judge defers ruling on whether Fox News reporter must testify on sources

Published April 08, 2013

FoxNews.com

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  District Judge Carlos Samour Jr. took over the case of Aurora, Colo., theater shooting suspect James Holmes this month.AP

The Colorado judge who will decide whether a Fox News reporter must reveal news sources or face possible jail time has deferred that decision to a later date.

District Court Judge Carlos Samour Jr. ruled that the issue facing FoxNews.com reporter Jana Winter is not "ripe" for a final decision. In his order, released late Monday, he wrote that he will not rule on requiring Winter's testimony until he first decides on whether a notebook mailed by James Holmes to a psychiatrist will be admissible as evidence in Holmes' murder trial.

The ruling comes amid court hearings where Holmes is accused of murdering 12 people and injuring 58 in a July 20, 2012, shooting rampage at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater.

Winter broke an exclusive story revealing that prior to the shooting Holmes had sent a package to a University of Colorado psychiatrist that included a notebook "full of details about how he was going to kill people," one source said.  Her July 25 article on FoxNews.com also reported that the notebook contained illustrations of a massacre, including drawings of gun-wielding stick figures shooting other stick figures.

The Holmes defense team accused the government of violating gag orders that Arapahoe County District Court Judge William Sylvester had issued in the days following the shooting, and his lawyers asserted that the disclosures violated Holmes' right to a fair trial.

After numerous legal fights, in which Winter has sought protection under New York’s public policy protecting confidential sources and the reporter Shield Law in Colorado, she was required to attend an April 1 hearing in the Centennial, Colo., courtroom in the murder case now overseen by Judge Samour. Holmes' lawyers argue that Winter's protection from the Colorado Shield Law should not apply because, among other criteria that must be met, her reporting purportedly revolved around a "substantial issue" in the case.

Holmes' notebook is not currently part of evidence in the proceedings and may never be, depending on further defense actions and judicial rulings. Because of that uncertainty, although Judge Samour said that he still will require Winter's presence in court for hearing Wednesday on her request to invalidate her subpoena, it appears that he will not rule on that request, nor force her to testify, until a later date.

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Colorado white supremacist prison gang founder re-sentenced to 108 years

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  A combo photo provided by the Colorado Department of Corrections shows Benjamin Davis.AP/Colorado Department of Corrections

DENVER –  One of the founders of a white supremacist Colorado prison gang was re-sentenced Wednesday to 108 years in prison for gang activities behind bars, ruling out parole for a man the judge called "a thoroughly dangerous individual."

Benjamin Davis was serving a 30-year sentence for robberies he committed when he was 19 when authorities say he helped start the 211 Crew. While in prison, he was convicted of charges related to his gang involvement, including racketeering and assault, and sentenced to 108 years in 2007. In February, the state appeals court ordered that a judge review whether the 38-year-old should serve the sentences back-to-back for 138 years total or 108 years, which might give Davis a chance at parole.

Judge William D. Robbins ruled Davis should serve the 108-year sentence on top of the 30-year sentence, noting that the robbery sentence had done little to deter Davis from breaking the law again.

"Mr. Davis over the last 20 years has endeavored to make himself a thoroughly dangerous individual," said Robbins, who didn't oversee Davis' trial in the 2007 case. "....The long and the short of it is you don't need to be out on the streets in 40 or 50 years."

Davis, his heavily-tattooed arms shackled to his waist, asked Robbins to allow him to serve the two sentences concurrently, or at the same time, giving him an outside chance of parole if he lives long enough.

"I'd just like to point out I didn't kill anyone," he said.

A woman who said she was Davis' sister leaned forward during the hearing and fought back tears, but she declined to comment after the hearing.

Another appeal is likely.

Davis' public defender tried unsuccessfully to delay the hearing, saying Davis has been held in isolation for the last two weeks and wasn't given enough notice to prepare for the re-sentencing hearing. She asked to be appointed to represent him for an appeal.

Davis was separated from other prisoners after the killing of Colorado corrections director Tom Clements to protect him because of media reports about the possibility that 211 leaders may have ordered his killing, corrections department spokeswoman Alison Morgan said. The only suspect in the slaying, Evan Ebel, was a 211 member and authorities have been looking into his ties as part of the murder investigation.

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Ex-inmate suspected of killing Colorado prisons chief freed 4 years too soon

Published April 01, 2013

Associated Press

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  Former Colorado inmate Evan Spencer Ebel, left, is suspected in the murder of the chief of Colorado prisons, Tom Clements, right. Ebel was killed in a shootout with authorities in Texas on March 21, 2013.AP/Colorado Department of Corrections

A clerical error allowed the man suspected of killing Colorado's prisons chief to be released from custody about four years early, officials said Monday.

In 2008, Evan Spencer Ebel pleaded guilty in rural Fremont County to assaulting a prison guard. In a plea deal, Ebel was to be sentenced to up to four additional years in prison, to be served after he completed the eight-year sentence that put him behind bars in 2005, according to a statement from the 11th Judicial District.

However, the judge did not say the sentence was meant to be "consecutive," or in addition to, Ebel's current one. So the court clerk recorded it as one to be served "concurrently," or at the same time. That's the information that went to the state prisons, the statement said.

So on Jan. 28, prisons officials saw that Ebel had finished his court-ordered sentence and released him.

Two months later he was dead after a shootout with authorities in Texas. The gun he used was the same used to shoot and kill prisons chief Tom Clements two days earlier. Police believe Ebel also was involved in the death of a Domino's delivery man, Nathan Leon, in Denver.

"The court regrets this oversight and extends condolences to the families of Mr. Nathan Leon and Mr. Tom Clements," said a statement signed by Charles Barton, chief judge of the 11th Judicial District, and court administrator Walter Blair.

Corrections officials said they had not calculated precisely the number of days Ebel would have remained behind bars had the sentence been consecutive. They said they had no way of knowing the plea deal was intended to keep Ebel behind bars for years longer.

The attack that led to the plea deal took place in 2006. According to prison and court records, Ebel slipped his handcuffs while being transferred from a cell and punched a prison guard in the nose, also threatening to kill the guard's family. Ebel spent much of his time behind bars in solitary confinement and had a long record of disciplinary violations.

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Woman accused of providing gun used to kill Colorado prisons chief

Published March 28, 2013

Associated Press

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  Stevie Marie Vigil, 22, is accused of providing gun used to kill Colorado prisons chief, Tom Clements.Colorado Bureau of Investigations

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  Former Colorado inmate Evan Spencer Ebel, left, is suspected in the murder of the chief of Colorado prisons, Tom Clements, right. Ebel was killed in a shootout with authorities in Texas on March 21, 2013.AP/Colorado Department of Corrections

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DENVER –  The Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents on Wednesday arrested a woman accused of illegally transferring the gun authorities say was used to kill Colorado's prisons chief.

Investigators believe Stevie Marie Vigil, 22, of Commerce City, legally bought the firearm from a licensed dealer in the Denver suburb of Englewood and transferred it to Evan Ebel, who was a felon who couldn't legally possess a firearm, the CBI said.

Ebel is suspected in the shooting deaths of Colorado Department of Corrections head Tom Clements on March 19 and of Nathan Leon, who was shot March 17 while working as a pizza delivery driver in the Denver area.

Ebel died after a shootout in Texas last week. El Paso County, Colo., sheriff's investigators have said the gun Ebel used in the shootout was the same weapon used to kill Clements when he answered the front door of his home.

The identity of the Englewood firearms dealer wasn't disclosed. Authorities described the dealer as "extremely cooperative" and said the dealer had no knowledge of Vigil's alleged actions after buying the gun.

Vigil was being held on one felony count of unlawful purchase of a firearm. Her bail was set at $25,000.

It's not clear how Vigil and Ebel might have met. Records associated with her arrest have been sealed, and an El Paso County sheriff's office spokesman didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Ebel, 28, had most recently been sentenced to four years in prison for punching a prison guard in 2008, according to state records. He was paroled Jan. 28 after serving his full prison term, corrections officials have said. His record also includes pleading guilty to holding a pistol to an acquaintance's head and stealing his wallet.

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Woman accused of providing gun used to kill Colorado prisons chief

Published March 27, 2013

Associated Press

DENVER –  The Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents on Wednesday arrested a woman accused of illegally transferring the gun authorities say was used to kill Colorado's prisons chief.

Investigators believe Stevie Marie Vigil, 22, of Commerce City, legally bought the firearm from a licensed dealer in the Denver suburb of Englewood and transferred it to Evan Ebel, who was a felon who couldn't legally possess a firearm, the CBI said.

Ebel is suspected in the shooting deaths of Colorado Department of Corrections head Tom Clements on March 19 and of Nathan Leon, who was shot March 17 while working as a pizza delivery driver in the Denver area.

Ebel died after a shootout in Texas last week. El Paso County, Colo., sheriff's investigators have said the gun Ebel used in the shootout was the same weapon used to kill Clements when he answered the front door of his home.

The identity of the Englewood firearms dealer wasn't disclosed. Authorities described the dealer as "extremely cooperative" and said the dealer had no knowledge of Vigil's alleged actions after buying the gun.

Vigil was being held on one felony count of unlawful purchase of a firearm. Her bail was set at $25,000.

Records associated with her arrest have been sealed, and an El Paso County sheriff's office spokesman didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

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Green's 26 points leads Colorado State past Missouri 84-72 in NCAA tourney

LEXINGTON, Ky. –  Of all the things Missouri could have done wrong in Thursday night's 84-72 loss to Colorado State in the NCAA Tournament, the Tigers didn't think rebounding would be one of them.

The Tigers were dominated 42-19 on the boards by a Colorado State team that entered the game leading the nation in rebounding margin at plus-12.1.

The Tigers were third at plus-9.6, but it was hard to tell considering how little resistance they put up against the Rams.

To put it another way, Colorado State center Colton Iverson had more rebounds than Missouri through 27 minutes and finished with just six fewer boards than the Tigers.

"I really don't think anything was different," said Missouri senior forward Alex Oriakhi, who finished with 16 points but just two rebounds. "Little bit of a lack of focus. I definitely feel on my part that we could have done a better job on blocking out.

"That's how basketball is sometimes. I think it was a lack of focus, and they were quicker to the ball."

Colorado State was also pretty good shooting it against Missouri (23-11). The Rams finished 49 percent from the field (25 of 51), including 7 of 14 from beyond the arc.

Missouri hit just 24 of 57 (42 percent) and 7 of 23 on 3-pointers. The result was a game controlled by Colorado State other than a few Tiger runs that made it interesting.

Phil Pressey's 20 points led the Tigers. Jabari Brown added 14 and Earnest Ross 11 for Missouri.

"I thought they were the more aggressive team," Tigers coach Frank Haith said of the Rams. "They really went after us and I thought they were rebounding the ball, which is what they do. They really dominated that part of the game and dominated the 50-50 balls.

"They were the aggressors. In this time of the year in tournament play, that's usually the team that wins the game."

The lopsided outcome was surprising considering the teams' similarities that made this an intriguing matchup.

Besides balanced offenses with at least four starters averaging in double figures, Colorado State and Missouri also have thrived on the glass.

Iverson averaged 14.7 points per game to key Colorado State's return to the tournament along with Eustachy, who led Southern Mississippi here last year. The 6-foot-10 senior has been helped by Wes Eikmeier (12.7 points) and Dorian Green (12.8 points) and Smith (11.1).

Missouri, meanwhile, featured one of the field's most balanced offenses, with Laurence Bowers (14.4 points) leading five starters averaging at least 11 points per game. Pressey has been one of the Tigers' most interesting stories, a talented guard who has tended to make mistakes in key moments.

That made for an entertaining first half that Colorado State led 47-38 by setting the offensive pace before falling into an end-to-end game more to Missouri's liking.

The Rams shot 15 of 26 (58 percent) in the first half and seemed primed to run away from the Tigers. Green was 3 for 3 from beyond the arc.

Missouri was 15 of 30 in the first 20 minutes with four 3-pointers.

Missouri closed to 49-45 early in the second half, but the Rams responded with a 17-4 surge for their biggest lead at 66-49.

Green scored 17 of his game-high 26 points in the first half and hit 11 of 12 free throws for Colorado State, which advances to face top-seeded Louisville in Saturday's third round Midwest Regional game. The Cardinals drubbed North Carolina A&T 79-48 in the preceding game.

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Texas shootout may be tied to Colorado correction chief's murder, authorities say

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DECATUR, Texas –  A man who may be linked to the slaying of Colorado's state prison chief led authorities in Texas on a harrowing, 100 mph car chase Thursday that ended after he crashed into a semi and then opened fire before being shot down by his pursuers, authorities said.

A federal law enforcement official has confirmed the man to be is 28-year-old Evan Spencer Ebel, who is a paroled prison inmate, the Associated Press reports.

The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Legal records show Ebel was convicted several crimes in Colorado dating back to 2003, including assaulting a prison guard in 2008.

He was spotted driving a car that matched the description of the vehicle seen leaving the home of prisons chief Tom Clements Tuesday night around the time he was shot.

Ebel is "basically legally deceased" while still hooked up to equipment for organ harvesting at a Fort Worth hospital, Wise County Sheriff David Walker said at an afternoon news conference in Decatur.

The possible link to the Tuesday night slaying of Colorado prison director Tom Clements is tentative but intriguing enough to put Colorado investigators on a plane to Texas. The black Cadillac Ebel drove, with Colorado license plates, matches the description of a car spotted outside Clements' home just before the Department of Corrections chief was fatally shot while answering his front door.

"We don't know yet exactly whether this is the guy," Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper told reporters earlier on Thursday. "There's some indication. I hope it is."

Also heading to Texas were detectives from Denver and Golden who are investigating whether Ebel is linked to the shooting death of a pizza delivery driver in Colorado on Sunday, Denver police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez said. She said the agencies were working with El Paso County, Colo., sheriff's officials, who are investigating Clements' death, and she couldn't comment on evidence from the car that crashed in Texas.

Montague County sheriff's deputy James Boyd tried to pull over the Cadillac at about 11 a.m. Thursday, though officials wouldn't elaborate on the reason.

The driver opened fire on Boyd, wounding him, Walker said. He then fled south before crashing into a semi as he tried to elude his pursuers.

Walker said Colorado investigators were heading to Texas to determine whether Ebel is connected to Clements' killing. Boyd was wearing a bulletproof vest and is at a Fort Worth hospital, authorities said. Officials had said he wasn't seriously injured but later said his condition was unknown.

Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins said Ebel appeared to be a white man in his 30s. Ebel shot at Hoskins four times as the chief tried to set up a road block to halt him. He left his car after it crashed and opened fire on the authorities around him, Hoskins said.

"He wasn't planning on being taken alive," Hoskins said. In a brief interview, he added that Ebel had no identification on him.

El Paso County sheriff's investigators have been looking for a dark, late-model car, possibly a Lincoln or a Cadillac, that a neighbor spotted near Clements' home around the time of the shooting. Lt. Jeff Kramer refused to say what other clues may have been found after officers canvassed Clements' neighborhood.

Clements, 58, was killed as he answered the door to his home Tuesday night in Monument, a town of rolling hills and alpine trees north of Colorado Springs. His death stunned law enforcement colleagues in Colorado and Missouri, where he spent most of his career as a highly respected corrections official.

Police haven't said if they think his death was linked to his job.

Denver's KMGH-TV reported Thursday that Clements may have put a bicycle up for sale for $1,200 on Craigslist. Kramer told the station, "I can't speak to the efforts behind this tip, or the level we are giving it."

In recent weeks, Clements had requested chemicals to plan for the execution of a convict on Colorado's death row and denied a Saudi national's request to serve out the remainder of a sentence in his home country. Officials refused to say whether they were looking at those actions as possible motives.

Clements came to Colorado in 2011 after working three decades in the Missouri prison system. Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Mandi Steele said Thursday the department was ready to help in the probe if asked.

"Tom regularly commented that corrections is inherently a dangerous business, and that's all that I'll say," said Alison Morgan, a Colorado corrections spokeswoman who worked closely with Clements.

Officials in positions like Clements' get a deluge of threats, according to people who monitor their safety. But it can be hard sorting out which ones could lead to violence. A U.S. Department of Justice study found that federal prosecutors and judges received 5,250 threats between 2003 and 2008, but there were only three attacks during that time period.

The last public official killed in Colorado in the past 10 years was Sean May, a prosecutor in suburban Denver. An assailant killed May as he arrived home from work. Investigators examined May's court cases, but the case remains unsolved.

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Manhunt after head of Colorado Department of Corrections killed answering doorbell

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The head of the Colorado Department of Corrections was fatally shot when he answered the doorbell at his home Tuesday night, authorities say.

Sheriff's Lt. Jeff Kramer says Tom Clements, 58, was shot in the chest around 8:30 p.m. in the town of Monument, which is north of Colorado Springs. It is unclear if his wife and two daughters were home at the time of the shooting and police are searching for the gunman.

Authorities are also looking for a dark-colored "boxy" car seen near the house of Tom Clements, 58, when he was shot around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in Monument, north of Colorado Springs. The vehicle's engine was running and a witness reported seeing one person driving away in the car.

Kramer, of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, said investigators have not ruled anything out, but the shooting could have been related to Clements' job as executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections.

"As the director of the Department of Corrections or any similar type position, it could in fact open someone up to be a target of a crime such as this. Although we remain sensitive to that, we also want to make sure that we remain open-minded to other possibilities as well," Kramer said.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper appointed Clements to the post in 2011 after he served for more than three decades in the Missouri Department of Corrections. He replaced Ari Zavaras, a former Denver police chief who led the department under two governors. The department operates 20 adult prisons and a juvenile detainment system.

Hickenlooper was red-eyed and somber and spoke haltingly Wednesday morning at a news conference in which he said he doesn't think the killing was part of any larger attack against his cabinet, members of which stood behind him, several of them crying. Others dabbed their eyes.

"Corrections is a very different job. You make difficult decisions every time that affect different people," Hickenlooper said, calling Clements dedicated, funny, caring and an expert on the latest and best methods in his field who chose the Colorado job over retirement.

"Tom Clements dedicated his life to being a public servant, to making our state a better place and he is going to be deeply, deeply missed."

Hickenlooper planned to go to Monument to meet with Clements' family after signing gun-control bills.

A family member called 911 to report the shooting. Search dogs were called in to comb through a wooded area around Clements' home, and authorities were going house to house trying to find out what neighbors heard and saw.

Clements lived in a wooded neighborhood of large, two-story houses on expansive 2-acre lots dotted with evergreen trees in an area known as the Black Forest. Long driveways connect the homes to narrow, winding roads that thread the hills. Clements' home was out of view, behind a barricaded of crime-scene tape in the road.

It would have been simple to find where Clements lived. It took two clicks to get his correct street address through a publicly available internet locator service Wednesday morning. The listing also included his previous home address in Missouri.

After Clements was appointed, Hickenlooper praised Clements for his approach to incarceration, saying he relied on proven methods to improve prison safety inside and programs that have been shown to improve successful outcomes after offenders are released from prison.

While Clements generally kept a low profile, his killing comes a week after he denied a request by a Saudi national, Homaidan al-Turki, to serve out the remainder of a Colorado prison sentence in Saudi Arabia. He cited al-Turki's refusal to undergo sex offender treatment in his denial.

Al-Turki, a well-known member of Denver's Muslim community, was convicted in state court in 2006 of unlawful sexual contact by use of force, theft and extortion and sentenced to 28 years to life in prison. Prosecutors said al-Turki kept a housekeeper a virtual slave for four years in his home and sexually assaulted her. A judge reduced the sentence to eight years to life. Al-Turki insisted the case was politically motivated. He owned a company that some years ago sold CDs of sermons recorded by Anwar al-Awlaki, killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

Al-Turki's conviction angered Saudi officials and prompted the U.S. State Department to send Colorado Attorney General John Suthers to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah, Crown Prince Sultan and al-Turki's family.

After Clements' shooting, someone with the State Department called the Colorado Corrections Department.

Prisons spokeswoman Alison Morgan said she had no details on the call other than to say it wasn't connected to the shooting investigation and may have been a simple courtesy.

"They called us because we have a cooperative international program with them," she said.

Hickenlooper ordered flags lowered to half-staff at public buildings until the day after Clements' funeral. Arrangements are pending.

Clements is survived by his wife, Lisa, and two daughters, Rachel and Sara.

Clements received a bachelor's degree in sociology and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Missouri. He started with the Missouri Department of Corrections in 1979 and over his 31 years there worked in prisons as well as probation and parole services. He was director of adult institutions when he left.

Missouri leaders also mourned his death.

George Lombardi, director of Missouri's Department of Corrections, said Clements was "just a very good, decent person."

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said in an emailed statement that Clements "dedicated his professional life and his considerable skills to public service and protection, and the citizens of Missouri join the people of Colorado in mourning this tremendous loss."

Clements is at least the second state prisons chief killed in office. Michael Francke, director of the Oregon Department of Corrections, was stabbed to death outside his office in 1989 in what prosecutors described as a bungled car burglary. A convicted drug dealer, Frank Gable, was found guilty of aggravated murder in 1991 and sentenced to life in prison. He and supporters contend he was wrongly convicted.

Clements' slaying was reminiscent of the 2008 killing of Adams County prosecutor Sean May. His wife was six months pregnant when he was shot and killed as he returned from work to his home in northwest Denver. His killer was never found.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report

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