The Colorado Supreme Court today refused to hear the case of a convicted double murderer who claimed he was a serial killer — a claim his defense attorneys called a sign of his mental illness.
Sean Hanify was sentenced in 2007 to two consecutive life terms for the murders of two Denver men.
In 2002, he was charged with killing his 59-year-old roommate, Edward Brown. Brown was beaten, stabbed and mutilated before he set their Capitol Hill apartment on fire.
While confessing to the murder, Hanify also admitted to the 2000 killing of 44-year-old Mark Davis, who was found on the banks of Cherry Creek, his body covered in rocks. Police also found a note that read “Killers in time” and another note that read “Irish Sicilian Mafioso Connection.”
Hanify told authorities and the media following his 2002 arrest that he had killed up to seven people in Utah, California and Denver, including two in a string of four stabbing deaths of gay men on Capitol Hill in 1992.
Police doubted some of his accounts. His public defenders said Hanify was prone to making delusional statements because of long-standing mental illness and mental retardation, and that he should not be believed.
Hanify later issued a sworn statement, through his attorneys, saying his comments were untrue.
Hanify pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but was convicted of both murders.
In April, a three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction.
Hanify’s lawyers appealed to the state’s high court, but the justices today declined to hear the case.
The 41-year-old is currently an inmate at Fremont Correctional Facility.
Sara Burnett: 303-954-1661 or sburnett@denverpost.com
