Just before Judith Pyle died of hypothermia, she told police and doctors who tried to save her: “I was raped.”
A Denver jury believed her last words and convicted Willie Trimble on Friday of first-degree murder and sexual assault of an at-risk adult.
“The evidence was overwhelming,” said Terrence McGuire, 38, the foreman of the jury.
Trimble, 47, faces life in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Christina Habas.
Pyle, 61, died Dec. 9, 2007, after she was raped behind a trash bin in single-digit weather. She was found by police shivering and screaming for help about 2 a.m. in an alley near East 35th Avenue and Clayton Street.
Pyle died four hours later at Denver Health Medical Center from complications of hypothermia.
“What a horrible way to die,” prosecutor Josh Franklin said during closing arguments. “Sexually assaulted in the freezing cold and then left for dead in that Denver alley for two hours. Left for dead behind that garbage Dumpster. Bleeding, unable to get up, pants pulled down, without an ounce of dignity.”
Jurors watched as Franklin flashed pictures of a beaten and partially clothed Pyle across a screen.
Two blocks from home
“Take a look at that photograph and ask yourself, does that look like someone whose will has been overcome?” Franklin said. “Use your common sense about what caused her death and who is responsible here.”
On Dec. 8, 2007, Pyle was on her way home from the Pepsi Center, where she worked as an usher, when she was attacked two blocks from her home after she got off an RTD bus.
Pyle was raped and knocked unconscious around midnight. Her cries for help were not heard by a neighbor until 1:30 a.m.
During closing arguments, Trimble’s defense lawyer Nancy Holton told jurors the attack did not cause Pyle’s death. Instead, Holton said, Pyle’s elevated blood-sugar levels and clogged arteries led to her demise.
“We do not have proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Judith Pyle died because of the acts of Mr. Trimble,” Holton said. “Ms. Pyle had a serious medical condition and she died, and unfortunately it happened at a time when something else bad happened to her.”
Defense criticizes police
Holton criticized Denver police who found Pyle and said they did not do enough to warm her up.
“They never offered to put a hat or jacket on her; what was most important to those police officers was the crime scene,” she said. “They are going to say that Mr. Trimble treated her like trash. Well, she was treated like dirt by the police.”
Holton did not dispute that Trimble’s DNA was found in Pyle, but she raised the possibility that Pyle knew Trimble.
“You don’t know what their relationship was, and they want you to jump to conclusions and you can’t,” she said.
Trimble’s defense team declined to comment on the verdict.
Prosecutor Kerri Lombardi told the jury that suggesting Pyle consented to sex with Trimble or that they knew each other was contrary to the evidence.
She said Trimble chose to rape Pyle because she was an “easy target” and his actions had a domino effect culminating in her death.
“He may not have meant for her to die, but that does not matter,” Lombardi said.
After the verdicts, Lombardi said Trimble has never expressed remorse or regret.
Trimble, a nine-time felon, was identified as a suspect in Pyle’s rape through a DNA database hit.
A sentencing date has not been set because Trimble has another sexual-assault case pending against him and a hearing on the status of the two cases is Friday.
Prosecutors believe Trimble sexually assaulted a 34-year-old woman on April 25, 1997, as she walked to Safeway on East 20th Avenue and Washington Street in Denver.
An affidavit says Trimble forced the woman behind a vacant house and threatened to kill her before he raped her.
The case was reopened as part of Denver’s Cold Case Project, and prosecutors say Trimble was linked to the 1997 assault through DNA.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
