Montrose – In the year before he was strangled in a quiet neighborhood park, Kevin Hale had been warned by his best friend to be careful about propositioning men in bars. That friend said he feared the openly gay Hale, a “stout little pumpkin of a man” who wrote poetry and loved Bette Midler, would end up with a black eye or a broken jaw as he sought companionship.
“But I never expected what happened,” Richard Howden said of the July 30 death of Hale, 36.
Two Montrose men have been charged with murdering and robbing Hale early that day after they had been playing pool in a nearby pub. Adam Hernandez, 21, and Jason Todd Fiske, 24, were advised of the charges against them in Montrose District Court on Monday.
In one of his three versions of the incidents surrounding Hale’s death, Fiske told investigators that Hernandez scuffled with Hale after accusing Hale of trying to molest him.
Investigators have not been able to question Hernandez because he requested an attorney and has declined to talk to police.
Montrose police Cmdr. Tom Chinn said Hale had filed several complaints, which were documented, with vague fears that someone or something was out to get him. Hale never mentioned Fiske or Hernandez, Chinn said, and did not raise sexual orientation as a reason for the harassment.
In one report, Hale said he was “being threatened by society in general.”
Hale’s uncle Larry DeVinny said Hale had been suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from Hale’s seeing his father and uncle drown during a family picnic in 1976.
DeVinny said Hale had never told him he was being harassed because he was gay.
DeVinny, a well-known local magician who is also openly gay, said he has never been harassed because of his sexual orientation.
In Monday’s hearing, Fiske was advised that he faces seven charges, including first-degree murder, murder after deliberation, robbery and intimidation of witnesses. Hernandez has been charged with first-degree murder, robbery and theft.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Adams said prosecutors have not decided whether to add the sentencing-enhancement charge of a hate crime because of Hale’s sexual orientation. In spite of a growing and conflicting swirl of rumors making their way through family, friends and the gay community in Montrose, police say they have little evidence to support such a charge.
“We don’t have anything to pursue on that at this time,” said Gene Lillard, a commander with Montrose police. “What the motive is we’re not sure. It could have been some kind of retaliation.”
Public defender Harvey Palefsky said that from the information contained in the arrest affidavit, he doesn’t think it “supports anything near a hate crime.”
Palefsky complained in court that he has not received any other investigative materials from prosecutors and that he didn’t understand how they could file the serious charges they did without more information.
Adams said he had gone over the case with investigators and “was satisfied the evidence was compelling enough to file the charges I filed.”
Fiske’s sister, Barbara Bentz, said she thinks her brother was trying to protect Hernandez in the park the night of the killing. She said she has never known him to be bigoted against gays.
She said he had gay friends in high school and lived next door to a gay man in California and “never had a problem” before moving to Montrose in April.
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.
