Deliberations to begin in case of attack on black CU student
Boulder – The jury will begin deliberating today in the case of a Lafayette man accused of breaking the jaw of a black University of Colorado student.
Both sides presented their closing arguments Monday, with prosecutors saying the assault was a vicious, racially motivated attack, and the defense countering that the punches were thrown in self- defense and race had nothing to do with it.
The assault happened early June 3, when Andrew Sterling confronted men in a van near 11th Street and Arapahoe Avenue.
“More than anything, I’m ready for it to be over with,” Sterling said. “I’m ready to move on. Yes or no tomorrow, I’m ready to erase the defendant from my memory.”
The defendant is 39-year-old Phillip Martinez, charged with second-degree assault and ethnic intimidation. His attorney, Keith Pope, has admitted that Martinez leveled the blows that broke Sterling’s jaw but said Martinez threw the punches only after Sterling made aggressive moves toward him. Friends of Martinez’s on Monday testified that Martinez is not racist.
Prosecutor Amy Okubo said seven witnesses testified that Martinez or somebody he was with directed a racial slur at Sterling. Several of those witnesses, she said, testified that Sterling made no aggressive moves before being punched.
EDGEWATER
Woman who reported tossed puppy charged
A woman who told Edgewater police she rescued a Pekingese puppy from two teens who were tossing it around like a football has been charged with false reporting and with child abuse, Cmdr. Mike Marchese said.
The child-abuse charges stem from the unsanitary conditions of the family home where the woman, Desirae McGee, 19, her 3-month-old son, and two juvenile siblings live with her parents, Marchese said. The parents, Michael and Christine McGee, also have been charged with child abuse, Marchese said.
He said there was no evidence to substantiate Desirae McGee’s story, no one had come forward to report a missing puppy and others in the community told police they thought the puppy belonged to McGee.
Apparently her 15-year-old brother accidently stepped on the puppy, Marchese said.
He said that all the juveniles have been removed from the house and that the family will be given an opportunity to clean the premises to the satisfaction of social services before any of the children are allowed to return.
ADAMS COUNTY
Police officers must face trial, judge rules
An Adams County district judge ruled Monday that there is probable cause for three Westminster police officers to face trial on charges of police brutality. A fourth officer will be tried on counts of misconduct and filing false information.
The four were indicted in November after they were alleged to have beaten a man after a hit-and-run car chase Aug. 27. The officers said they believed the man was reaching for a weapon under his car seat.
Two Federal Heights police officers witnessed the incident and reported it to authorities.
Charged with assault, official misconduct and filing a false report in the incident were Mark Toth, a sergeant in charge of Westminster’s Special Crimes Attack Team, and Norman Haubert and Jason Poppenger, both members of the attack team. Chris Pyler was charged with official misconduct and filing a false report. Toth was fired, and the other three have been reassigned to administrative duties.
The four will be arraigned April 7.
DELTA COUNTY
All 3 plane-crash victims identified
The Delta County coroner’s office has identified all the victims of a plane crash Thursday east of Delta.
In addition to Sawpit pilot Glen Harcourt, 40, the victims were Bolling E. “Beau” Willse, 24, of Baltimore and Timothy Hackett, 24, of Grand Junction.
Hackett and Willse were working for Harcourt on a construction project at the Gunnison River Farms private bird-hunting and yoga retreat 10 miles east of Delta when their Cessna hit a power line on the property and exploded in the air.
WOODY CREEK
Man gets 42 months in jail for child porn
A 68-year-old man from Woody Creek was sentenced Monday in federal court to 42 months in prison for possession of child pornography.
Willard William McDonough, who owned a sporting-goods store in Aspen for 20 years, engaged in sexually explicit online chats with “Jenny,” an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl, according to the Colorado U.S. attorney’s office.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS
Boy, 3, rescued after snow slides from roof
A 3-year-old boy survived being buried for at least four minutes Monday by a pile of heavy snow that slid off a slanted roof at a school, authorities said.
Sebastian Radl-Jones, who was returning from a walk with his parents, Travis Jones and Ivana Radlova, stopped to play on a pile of snow when the slide happened about noon, said Sgt. Ray Birch of the Routt County Sheriff’s Office.
A search that included several people from The Lowell Whiteman School digging with shovels and others scraping the snow with bare hands uncovered the boy. By the time authorities arrived, Sebastian’s head was free of the snow and he was breathing and yelling.
