CENTENNIAL — If Robert Ray had been found guilty of being an accessory to a murder in 2004, he might have been out of prison by now.
Instead, Ray will pay with his life for killing a witness who was scheduled to testify against him.
Arapahoe County District Judge Gerald Rafferty on Wednesday formalized the sentence a jury handed down nearly a year ago: the death penalty for killing Javad Marshall-Fields.
“Mr. Javad Marshall-Fields observed the rule of the law,” Rafferty said. “Mr. Ray did not, and he suffered the consequences.”
During the sentencing hearing, Marshall-Fields’ mother, Rhonda Fields, noted what an honest young man her son had become and praised him for his courage. His stepfather talked about what a trying five years it had been for the family. His sister had only contempt for the man who took her brother away.
“On Robert Ray’s tombstone, it should say, ‘Those who kill witnesses must and will die,’ ” said his sister, Maisha Pollard. “I’m done with Robert Ray.”
The judge sentenced Ray, 24, to be executed by injection in August. But it could be a decade or longer until his sentence is meted out because of an automatic review by the Colorado Supreme Court and potential appeals.
Defense attorney Mike Root seemed shaken by the outcome of Wednesday’s hearing.
“I think it’s an injustice Mr. Ray received the death penalty,” he said.
Marshall-Fields and his fiancee, Vivian Wolfe, were shot and killed in June 2005 as the 22-year-olds were heading out for the evening. Ray plotted and ordered the hit on Marshall-Fields because he was to testify against Ray in the July 4, 2004, murder of Gregory Vann.
Sir Mario Owens, the trigger man in the shooting deaths of Wolfe and Marshall-Fields, is already on death row for the crimes.
Colorado’s last execution was in 1997, when Gary Lee Davis, 53, received a lethal injection for the 1986 murder of Virginia “Ginny” May.
Rafferty also affirmed on Wednesday Ray’s life-without-parole sentence for Wolfe’s murder and several other sentences. He did not rule on a request for a new trial based on “new evidence” Ray’s defense team said prosecutors kept from them. A hearing is scheduled on that matter this month.
After Ray was sentenced to death by a jury in June, his defense team filed numerous motions trying to delay the formal sentencing as long as possible. That delay frustrated family members of the victims.
The jury foreman also attended the hearing. The 39-year-old computer programming engineer said the jury struggled on whether to sentence Ray to death, but in the end, they felt that killing a witness was too heinous of a crime to let him live.
“It was serious enough to deserve the highest penalty,” he said.
Rhonda Fields had mixed emotions after the hearing. But she said she was proud of her son for agreeing to testify against Ray, even after he received threats on his life.
“The right time to do right is always,” said Fields, who since her son’s murder has been a champion for witness protection. “We need people to feel comfortable to come forward.”
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
