Montrose – Jason Fiske, one of two men accused of killing an openly gay Montrose man in July, pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning to a first-degree murder charge.
A two-week jury trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 29.
Fiske, 25, and 21-year-old Adam Hernandez were charged with first-degree murder after Kevin Hale’s body was found in a Montrose park the morning of July 31. Hernandez told authorities that he, Fiske and two other men who were not charged in the incident waited for Hale in a park they knew he would walk through on his way home from a bar.
Hernandez, Fiske and Hale had been at the same nearby pub the night before, and Hernandez said he told Fiske he wanted to beat up and rob Hale because Hale had made sexual advances toward him.
Hernandez said he jumped on Hale from behind and that Fiske then put Hale in a chokehold. An autopsy report showed Hale died of strangulation.
Fiske, who had moved to Montrose from California six months earlier, went to the Montrose Police Department the day Hale’s body was found, allegedly to admit he had taken part in a fight involving Hale.
Hernandez reached a plea agreement last month, and was sentenced to serve six years for manslaughter and two years for theft. His sentence left open the possibility that he may serve part of that time in a boot camp.
A smiling Fiske was pushed into court Tuesday in a wheelchair after spraining his ankle in jail. Except for short “yes, sirs” and “no, sirs,” in response to questions from Montrose District Judge Dennis Friedrich, he did not speak.
His mother, sister, brother and a handful of other family members and friends were in court, but declined to comment. His attorney, former prosecutor Dan Hotsenpiller, also declined to comment about why his client did not accept a plea agreement that had been in the works.
Larry DeVinny, Hale’s uncle, said the trial would be a good thing, even though it would start nearly 18 months after his nephew’s death. He said it would be nice to put the legal part of his nephew’s death behind them, but it will also be helpful to have the events surrounding Hale’s death made public.
“The truth will come out,” said DeVinny, who is also openly gay. “I think it will be proven as a hate crime.”
Prosecutors to date have declined to ask for hate-crime sentence enhancements.
