A murder suspect took the witness stand Thursday to defend himself, telling a jury that he was innocent because the victim, Denver businessman J.P. Kelso, committed suicide.
Timothy Boham, 28, who said he befriended the wealthy Kelso after being paid for sex with him, also told the jury that he took his gun out of Kelso’s hand, held it to his own head and pulled the trigger, but it misfired.
Boham took the stand after Chief Deputy District Attorneys Bonnie Benedetti and Diane Balkin presented the jury with a string of confessions Boham made to his mother, sister and police, all of whom testified against him.
According to testimony, after Kelso died in his bedroom in the 3600 block of East Seventh Avenue in November 2006, Boham dragged the body into the bathtub, where he cleaned it of fingerprints. He gathered clothing, bedding, a shell casing and other items and threw them into Cherry Creek, where a construction crew found them later. That night, he took his girlfriend to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner and to a show at Comedy Works.
Also, according to testimony, Boham then went to his mother’s and told her he had shot someone. He telephoned police three days later from Arizona and confessed to shooting Kelso.
In a taped interview, Boham told police he had been paid by Kelso to have sex with him, that he was disgusted with Kelso and decided to steal the $100,000 he thought was in Kelso’s safe so that he could take his pregnant girlfriend to a beach somewhere. He bought a power saw and cut open the safe, but all that was inside were a few car titles.
On the stand Thursday, Boham, who made $1,500 to $2,000 a night as an escort for both sexes, said he had been possessed “by a spirit who told me to shoot” Kelso.
He also said everything in the police video “was complete fantasy, to establish the craziness that I had flown off the handle and murdered J.P.”
He said the reality was that he and Kelso had devised a plan to make Kelso’s suicide look like a robbery-murder so that Kelso’s life insurance would pay out, which it wouldn’t for a suicide.
The trial, before Denver District Judge Will Hood Jr., is expected to conclude today.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
