As a 22 year-old and recent college graduate, my June 1 jury summons was also my first. I waited anxiously in the jury room last Monday morning for a dismissal that never came.
And looking back at my week as a juror on a high profile murder trial, I have wrestled with many emotions and discovered a new-found respect and appreciation for Colorado’s criminal justice system.
I was assigned to Timothy Boham’s case for the murder of John “J.P.” Kelso over the past week, an experience that has been burned deep into my memory.
Unbeknown to me (jurors are forbidden from reading media reports during the trial) the week’s events were well covered and speculation over gay escort services, homosexuality and drugs ran rampant in local media.
Through all of this largely irrelevant background noise, the Denver District Attorneys, who prosecuted the case were able to convince a jury far beyond a reasonable doubt, that Boham was responsible for Kelso’s murder, a twisted event carried out over the course of a weekend when no one would notice.
After murdering Kelso on a Saturday afternoon, Boham left the body and some evidence submerged in a bathtub full of water and went to dinner with his pregnant girlfriend of the time.
He returned the next day to gather valuable items inside the house and confessed to his mother and sister before boarding a plane to Arizona the next week and crossing the border into Mexico. After turning himself in to border patrol officers, Boham made a three hour videotaped confession that was shown to the jury.
Boham’s confession was made after several days alone in Mexico with time to consider the possible consequences of his actions.
It is clear from his confession that he initially believed he could convince a jury he was crazy and pursue an insanity defense.
As was later revealed to the jury through audio recordings of phone calls between Boham and his family, he intended to manipulate a jury into thinking he was possessed by demons.
Bohman eventually dropped this defense in favor of another, claiming Kelso actually killed himself and Boham had agreed to make the scene look like a murder so Kelso’s family could collect on his life insurance policy. No one on the jury bought either story.
After days of emotional testimony from friends and family members and reviewing gruesome autopsy photos, I began to feel as though I was living in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
In an instant, however, I would be jerked back into reality with mentions of Kelso’s house on the 7th Street Parkway not far from my own and references to one of Boham’s favorite restaurants, California Pizza Kitchen, in Cherry Creek.
The tragedy of Kelso’s death has largely been lost in the sensational coverage of Boham’s speculated sexual preference, which is irrelevant to the case.
Boham met Kelso long before being hired by him as an escort, and if you believe Boham’s testimony than you also believe that Boham found his own homosexual experiences to be repulsive, albeit well paid.
My experience as a juror gave me a first hand look into Colorado’s criminal justice system, of which I would have most likely otherwise remained largely oblivious.
And once the shock of the autopsy photos and the decision to send a man to prison for the rest of his life wears off, I am confident I will reflect on this experience in a positive light.
For the time being, I urge my fellow Coloradans to embrace jury duty with open arms, recognizing that it is a civic duty that comes with great responsibility and power.
Katie Melvin lives in Denver. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
