Fairplay – A conspirator in a 2000 triple homicide had two years shaved off his lengthy sentence Friday but failed to convince the judge that he was not culpable.
Jonathan Matheny, whose original sentence of 68 years was overturned by the Colorado Court of Appeals because sentence enhancements were improperly added, was ordered instead to serve 66 years through a recalculation of the penalties.
“It still lives with me every day. I’m going to be forever sorry, and there’s no way I can make it up to the family,” Matheny told District Court Judge Kenneth Plotz. “I don’t know how I can ever do anything to take the pain away.”
Prosecutors say Matheny, now 22, shot and killed Carl and Joanna Dutcher while accomplice Isaac Grimes cut the throat of their grandson, Tony Dutcher, at their rural Park County home on New Year’s Eve 2000.
But public defender Patrick Murphy argued that Matheny’s only involvement in the murders was in driving Grimes to and from Guffey and that no physical evidence – including more than 100 fingerprints and hair and fiber samples taken from the home – linked him to the crime scene.
“I believe my client was sentenced to something that my client didn’t plead guilty to … and that is the actual murders of the Dutchers,” Murphy said, noting that the only people who pointed to Matheny as the triggerman were Grimes and Simon Sue, the convicted ringleader of a self-described vigilante group.Matheny pleaded guilty in December 2003 to violating the Colorado Organized Crime Act and three counts of conspiracy to commit murder in an agreement that called for a sentence of 48 to 80 years.
The original sentence of 68 years, though, was overturned because Plotz improperly doub led the length of the prison terms – from 24 to 48 years – for the conspiracy charges, citing aggravating circumstances that legally could only be applied by a jury or negotiated as part of the plea agreement.
Instead, Plotz on Friday ordered that the conspiracy sentences be served consecutively rather than concurrently, rejecting the defense argument that his good behavior in prison indicates newfound maturity and warrants a shorter term.
Matheny was the second person convicted to have his sentence revisited this week, after Plotz on Wednesday reinstated the 60-year term for Grimes that had been reduced by 10 years and later overturned on a timing technicality.
Sue also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 53 years but has appealed that term on the same grounds as Matheny.
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
