Prosecutors can seek the death penalty for Robert Ray if he is convicted of murdering a witness and his fiancée almost two years ago.
The Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office made a clerical error in January, when it filed two notices that it was seeking the death penalty against Ray’s alleged accomplice, Sir Mario Owens.
One of those notices should have had Ray’s name on it, according to the district attorney. Because Ray’s name wasn’t on either notice, Ray’s defense lawyer contended that the district attorney missed the deadline to file for the death penalty.
But a district court judge ruled Friday that District Attorney Carol Chambers can proceed with the death penalty if Ray and Owens are convicted of murder.
Owens, Ray and another man, Parish Carter, have been charged in the deaths of Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe. Marshall-Fields was set to testify against Ray when he was shot and killed along with Fields while the couple drove along an Aurora street in June 2005.
