KEYSTONE – A skier who died Sunday after hitting a tree at Keystone ski area was identified Monday as Pieter Stolk, 56, of Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Stolk, a civil engineer, had been skiing on an intermediate run, Mozart, when he apparently hit a bump and lost control, according to the Summit County coroner’s office. He died of internal injuries.
He was the fifth person to die this season in a crash on Colorado’s ski slopes and the second fatality at Keystone.
BOULDER
Brown says CU cuts threaten its standing
University of Colorado president Hank Brown and Health Sciences Center chancellor Roy Wilson said Monday that CU’s medical school could lose its national reputation or be forced to privatize unless the legislature restores $24 million cut during the recession.
Both men voiced their support for Senate Bill 97, which would redirect the annual payments the tobacco industry makes to the 50 states as part of a lawsuit settlement.
The Health Sciences Center would receive almost half that money, which is estimated to total $30 million next year.
FORT CARSON
Homemade bomb kills GIs in Iraq
A soldier from this Army post was killed by a homemade bomb in Iraq, the military said Monday.
Sgt. Alexander H. Fuller, 21, of Centerville, Mass., was killed Thursday in Baghdad, the military said.
The military confirmed that a second soldier, Pfc. Michael C. Balsley, 23, of Hayward, Calif., was also killed by the homemade bomb. Balsley’s family had announced his death earlier.
Both were assigned to Fort Carson’s 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.
The deaths bring to 186 the number of Fort Carson soldiers who have died in Iraq.
DENVER
Shirt color fatal, slaying witness says
A Denver gang leader shot and killed a 22-year-old man in downtown Denver because of the color of a shirt the victim was wearing, a key prosecution witness testified Monday in the murder trial of Lamar Blackwell.
Cleus “Hus” Williams told a Denver District Court jury that he had gone with Blackwell to a hip-hop party at Club Beyond, in the Pavilions, on April 4, 2006.
He said that Blackwell, 29, known as “Lil Corn,” was offended by the red or maroon shirt Jerome Louis Martin was wearing, because those colors are often worn by members of the rival Bloods gang.
“I met ‘Lil Corn’ outside and he said, ‘We are going to do security.’ ‘Lil Corn’ said he was going to ‘merc’ him (Martin) – that means he was going to kill him,” Williams testified.
Williams identified Blackwell as a leader of the gang.
Under cross-examination by defense lawyer Wilbur Smith, who represents Blackwell, Williams admitted he originally misled Denver police about the identity of the killer.
He said he was fearful that Blackwell and the gang would target his family.
Williams, who described himself as an “associate” of the Crips, said he saw Blackwell shoot Martin about four times.
Defense attorney Smith contends that it was actually Williams who killed Martin.
