DENVER—A state prison inmate could face the death penalty after he was convicted of murder Wednesday in the brutal slaying of another inmate who had been labeled a snitch.
Prosecutors said David Bueno, 44, stabbed Jeffrey Heird 29 times and beat him severely because he was suspected of not warning other inmates that a drug bust was coming.
Jurors in Lincoln County District Court in Hugo had deliberated since Friday afternoon. On Monday, they will begin hearing the penalty phase of the trial when prosecutors ask them to sentence Bueno to die.
The last execution in Colorado was in 1997, when 53-year-old Gary Lee Davis was put to death for his conviction in a 1986 slaying.
Bueno was also convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder but was acquitted of one count of solicitation to commit murder. The solicitation charge stemmed from allegations that he sent a letter to another inmate asking him to kill a witness to Heird’s slaying.
Prosecutors declined to comment after the verdict, citing the upcoming penalty phase. Derek Samuelson, one of Bueno’s attorneys, also said he could not comment.
Heird, 40, was killed in the Limon Correctional Facility in 2004. He had been convicted in Utah of kidnapping and killing a Cortez, Colo., gas station attendant in 1991.
Bueno was serving a 24-year sentence for burglary when Heird was killed.
Prosecutors said Heird’s slaying was gang-related and that one of the inmates caught in the drug bust was Bueno’s friend and fellow gang member. They said Bueno wanted to torture and kill Heird to make an example of him.
Bueno’s attorneys said he was set up by other inmates and argued the case against him was based on unreliable witnesses and scant physical evidence.
Prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of other inmates. One, William Wonnenberg, told investigators he saw Bueno and another prisoner, Alejandro Perez, walk into Heird’s cell during dinner when few inmates were around.
Wonnenberg said he heard screaming and the sound of something hitting against concrete. Prosecutors said that was Bueno banging Heird’s head on the cement floor.
Bueno’s attorneys said Wonnenberg’s nickname was “Crooked” and that he had several felony convictions. They said Heird got the information about the drug bust from a female officer who “let him get too close.”
Perez is also charged with first-degree murder and faces the death penalty if convicted. He will be tried later.
Prosecutors said a third inmate, 34-year-old Michael Ramirez, acted as a lookout during the slaying. He too faces a murder charge.
Carol Chambers, the district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, prosecuted Bueno and also had planned to prosecute Perez.
But Lincoln County District Judge Stanley A. Brinkley on Monday removed Chambers from the Perez case, saying Perez could not get a fair trial unless a special prosecutor is appointed.
Chambers plans to appeal.
Brinkley’s order focused on the role of two former defense attorneys who worked on the Heird case and whether the prosecution properly billed the Department of Corrections for its costs.
One of the attorneys, Dan Edwards, is a prosecutor with the state attorney general’s office who is working with Chambers’ office. He once represented Perez in the second-degree murder case that got him sent to prison.
The other, Bob Watson, was a deputy prosecutor in Chambers’ district when Heird was killed and was one of the first investigators on the scene. Though Watson is no longer involved in the case, he once represented an inmate whom defense attorneys say should have been a suspect in the Heird slaying.
Brinkley also said Chambers’ office should not have billed the Department of Corrections for attorneys fees as part of the cost of prosecuting Perez.
He said prosecutors also “circumvented” state law by directly billing the Department of Corrections instead of having Lincoln County officials certify the expenses first.
Chambers has defended the funding, saying state law allows prosecutors to bill the prison system for handling the case of prisoners accused of crimes.
