Glenwood Springs – Fourteen-year-old Eric Alan Stoneman faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars after being charged as an adult Wednesday in the shooting death of a 9-year-old Battlement Mesa boy.
Stoneman, who sat hunched over and continually bit at his lower lip during a brief appearance in 9th Judicial District Court, was charged with first-degree murder after deliberation, along with eight lesser charges, in connection with the July 20 death of Tyler Allen DeMarco.
“These are very, very serious charges we’re talking about,” District Attorney Colleen Truden said during a news conference after the hearing.
Fourteen is the minimum age for charging a juvenile as an adult. If found guilty as an adult, Stoneman faces a mandatory life sentence without parole, said Assistant District Attorney Vince Felleter, who is prosecuting the case.
If Stoneman had been charged and found guilty as a juvenile, the maximum penalty would have been seven years behind bars.
Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario, whose office investigated the shooting, said he thought the charges were appropriate.
“I’m certainly happy to see it go through the way it did,” Vallario said.
According to a search warrant affidavit, DeMarco and Stoneman had spent much of July 20 at the Battlement Mesa residence of a 13-year-old witness to the shooting. The witness told authorities that after Stoneman went home, DeMarco phoned him and taunted him.
The witness said Stoneman returned with a .22-caliber handgun, sat on a couch and pointed it at his own head and then put the barrel of the weapon in his mouth, telling the other boys not to worry – the safety was on.
The witness said Stoneman then handed the gun to DeMarco and when DeMarco handed it back, Stoneman pointed it at DeMarco and pulled the trigger.
After he was shot, DeMarco ran outside to a gate and then back to the porch of the home, where he collapsed and died.
The witness earlier had told authorities that Stoneman had DeMarco on his knees, begging for his life. The witness later recanted that part of his statement.
Stoneman is being held in the Grand Mesa Youth Center in Grand Junction and has been placed under a restraining order that prohibits him from contacting the witness. District Judge T. Peter Craven set a Oct. 19 preliminary hearing for Stoneman.
At the brief hearing Monday, there was heavy security in and outside the courtroom because of an outburst by DeMarco’s father at an earlier hearing. This time, DeMarco’s parents sat quietly behind the prosecutors while Stoneman’s parents sat behind their son and were quickly taken out a back door after the hearing.
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.
