John Dicke is so sure of Timothy John Kennedy’s innocence he says he’d trust his family with the 52-year-old inmate whose murder convictions the defense attorney helped get overturned.
Dan Zook is just as convinced Kennedy is the same dangerous, paranoid former drug addict and dealer the assistant district attorney helped put in prison for two life terms.
Once again, a 4th Judicial District jury will decide. A judge Tuesday set a Sept. 21 retrial for Kennedy, who is accused of the murders of a Colorado Springs couple found shot to death execution-style in their mobile home.
Judge Thomas Kane also set bail at $250,000 for Ken nedy, who recently won a new trial based on new DNA tests and other evidence.
A jury convicted Kennedy in 1997 of charges that he killed Jennifer Carpenter, a 15-year-old runaway, and her boyfriend and legal guardian, Steve Staskiewicz. Kennedy has served nearly 14 years for the murders.
Kane, who presided over the original trial, granted the retrial April 21 after being presented with new evidence, including DNA tests that showed another male’s DNA on the sponge used as a silencer and on the two bodies. Kennedy’s DNA was not present in either sample.
Tuesday, Kane ruled there was no longer enough evidence to hold Kennedy without bail.
That led to a request from Zook to set bail at $500,000 rather than the $60,000 requested by Dicke, Kennedy’s court-appointed attorney who worked for three years on the appeal.
Zook asked the judge to consider who Kennedy was at the time of the murders.
“He was a heavy drug user, addicted to methamphetamine. He sold methamphetamine,” Zook said. “He had no job. He was paranoid. He accused not only his parents of trying to poison him but he accused other people of trying to poison his dog.”
The prosecutor reminded the judge that the prosecution proved it was Kennedy’s gun and ammunition that was used to kill the couple.
Kennedy has claimed he lent the gun to them for their own protection.
However, Zook called that “unbelievable at best.”
Dicke reminded the judge that at the time of the arrest, Kennedy had no criminal record.
“He was not addicted to methamphetamine. He was addicted to pain killers,” Dicke said, noting his client was recovering from a back injury at the time.
“There was no evidence that he was a dealer. It was a fantasy that the DA presented,” Dicke said, calling the accusations “slanderous and inaccurate.”
Outside the courtroom, Dicke said the Colorado Bureau of Investigation has confirmed the DNA results found by a Dutch forensics firm.
