AURORA, Colo.-
A defense attorney says prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty for a man accused of killing a witness in a murder trial because they made an error in legal papers.
Michael Root, who represents Robert Keith Ray, said in court filings this week that when prosecutors filed notices that they would seek the death penalty for Ray and his co-defendant, both notices used the co-defendant’s name.
In a response, Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers acknowledged the error but said the notice did use the correct case number for Ray. She said Ray cannot claim he didn’t realize prosecutors would pursue the death penalty.
Chambers’ office filed a corrected death penalty notice, but Root’s filing questions whether she had the authority to do so.
A judge was expected to hold a hearing on the matter next month.
Ray and Sir Mario Owens both face first-degree murder charges in the June 2005 shooting deaths of Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe.
Authorities said they had planned to call Marshall-Fields to testify against Ray and Owens in their trials in the unrelated slaying of Gregory Vann in 2004. Marshall-Fields and Wolfe, both 22, were engaged.
Ray was convicted of being an accessory to murder in Vann’s death and was sentenced to 108 years in prison. Owens was convicted of first-degree murder in Vann’s death and faces life in prison without parole when he is sentenced April 3.
