Following six hours of deliberation, a Denver jury Friday acquitted 17-year-old Michael Cordova of the shooting of good Samaritan Matt Casias last October on Santa Fe Drive.
Casias was shot in the chest while coming to the rescue of mugging victim Brenda Turner, then 63.
The jury found Cordova not guilty of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted aggravated robbery and third-degree assault of an at-risk adult.
Wayne Cole, Cordova’s defense attorney, embraced the grinning Cordova. Cordova’s family sobbed loudly with joy as Denver District Judge Herbert Stern announced the unanimous decision.
“You got your boy back,” Cole told the Cordova family as they hugged the veteran lawyer.
Casias, owner of Power Imaging at 767 Santa Fe Drive, was hospitalized in critical condition after the bullet punctured his lungs.
Casias was working at his desk on Oct. 28, facing a large window, when he noticed Turner struggling with a man outside his printing business. The man had demanded that Turner give him her purse, something she had refused to do.
Casias, a former Golden Gloves boxer, barreled into the would-be robber and punched him in the face. The assailant immediately shot Casias with a small, silver-colored gun. Casias then stumbled back to his company, asked his employees to call police and was taken to the hospital.
A critical prosecution witness was Denver artist Rodney Wallace, who also had rushed toward the melee when the shot was fired. Wallace said the shooter turned around and they stared at each other, their faces about six inches apart.
“His eyes were on fire. His face was red. His veins were popping out,” Wallace said of the clean-cut attacker whom he identified as Cordova.
Wallace said Cordova had what appeared to be a “lazy” right eye.
But Cole claimed that in the initial calls and reports to police, Wallace described the shooter as being taller and heavier than Cordova.
Cole also questioned Wallace’s identification of Cordova, saying Wallace had only seen the shooter for a split second before the shooter fled.
Cole called one of the leading experts in eyewitness identification in the United States, Edith Greene, a psychologist from the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, to cast doubt on Wallace’s testimony.
She said the longer one sees an assailant, the more accurate their memory is of the person. The shorter the time, the less accurate is the description.
Cole said he thought inconsistencies in the descriptions of the shooter and questions of credibility resulted in the not guilty verdict.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
