DENVER—Larimer County prosecutors moved Friday to drop murder charges against Timothy Masters and asked the attorney general to take over any future prosecution in the 1987 slaying of Peggy Hettrick.
The move to drop the charges was expected after a judge overturned Masters’ murder conviction and life sentence in light of new DNA evidence.
But District Attorney Larry Abrahamson said in a written release that the DNA did not “completely exonerate” Masters. Abrahamson said the evidence only suggested that others should be investigated.
Abrahamson’s spokeswoman, Linda Jensen, said he was unavailable for comment. Jensen said only that the investigation was “back to square one.”
Hettrick was found stabbed to death and sexually mutilated outside Fort Collins. Masters was arrested more than a decade later and was convicted in 1999. A new defense team challenged the conviction, saying key evidence was withheld from the Masters’ trial lawyers.
Last week, authorities said DNA evidence found on Hettrick’s body belonged to someone other than Masters. The conviction was overturned and Masters was released Tuesday, but it was up to Abrahamson to decide whether to ask the judge to drop the original charges.
The final decision is up to Larimer County District Judge Joseph Weatherby. A hearing is scheduled Feb. 5.
Defense attorney Maria Liu welcomed Abrahamson’s request to drop the charges but bristled at his refusal to say Masters was exonerated.
“They know it, we know it, everybody knows it,” Liu said. “They don’t have a single shred of evidence against Tim. They just don’t have the guts or the integrity to say that.”
In his written release, Abrahamson said questions remain about the new DNA evidence because the state crime lab was able to validate only a portion of tests originally commissioned by the defense.
It was the state lab’s confirmation of the defense tests that led the judge to overturn the conviction.
Abrahamson said he asked Gov. Bill Ritter to have the attorney general take over the case “to avoid any perceived appearance of bias or conflict,” apparently referring to defense claims that Masters’ trial attorneys didn’t get all the information they should have.
Abrahamson was not on the original prosecution team.
He said he expected a response from Ritter next week. Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said that type of request is so rare that Ritter wanted to take his time to decide.
Fort Collins police spokeswoman Rita Davis said police supported the request to turn the case over to state prosecutors.
A judge has assigned a special prosecutor to launch a separate investigation into allegations of perjury and illegal eavesdropping by Fort Collins police Lt. Jim Broderick in the original investigation of Masters.
Liu filed a motion alleging Broderick’s trial testimony was different from information discovered during later hearings. She also alleged he recorded a conversation between Masters and his father without either man’s permission. That would be a violation of Colorado law.
Broderick did not have a listed phone number. Davis, the police spokeswoman, said he was out of town on a family medical emergency.
Investigators had built a circumstantial case against Masters, based on a psychological analysis, violent pictures he had drawn and the fact that he lived 100 feet from where Hettrick’s body was found. Police said Masters, who was 15 at the time, saw the body but did not report it.
Part of the prosecution’s theory was that a grieving Masters planned the slaying to coincide with the anniversary of his mother’s death, who had died four years before Hettrick’s slaying.
