For seven years, Rhonda Fields has had to endure the tragic shooting deaths of her son and his fiancée, victims in brutal witness killings.
She sat through years of court hearings for two men who were eventually convicted and sentenced to death for the murders.
So Fields — now a in large part because of her efforts to improve the protection of witnesses — thought it wasn’t too much to ask if, after all these years, she could finally have the camera her son, Javad Marshall-Fields, had in his car the day he was gunned down.
Apparently it had been too much to ask. The camera was still being held as evidence as one of the killers, , appeals his conviction.
But this week, an Arapahoe County district judge ruled it was time Fields gets what is rightfully hers. So the camera was ordered to be given to her within a few days.
She has yet to see the photos in the camera, but she believes it includes images from the day , graduated from Colorado State University in 2005 — a few weeks before they were murdered.
“I am excited,” Fields said. “I am looking forward to getting a sense of what Javad took. He was so proud to graduate from college.”
Marshall-Fields was a key prosecution witness against Ray and another man, Sir Mario Owens, in the 2004 killing of a friend of Marshall-Fields’.
The following year, days before he was to testify, Marshall-Fields and Wolfe, who was riding with him, were shot and killed.
The camera is one of two items of his that had been withheld as evidence. The other item, a backpack, has not been released.
Ray’s attorney argued that the camera should be analyzed before being released to Rhonda Fields.
Mary Claire Mulligan, who represented Ray, declined to comment. But in court she objected to Fields’ making any statement to the judge because her words would not be pertinent to the release of the items.
That rubbed Fields the wrong way.
“I felt re-victimized,” said Fields, who was eventually allowed to give a brief statement.
Attorney Lisa Teesch-Maguire, who represented Fields, said the judge made the right call.
“She had not seen the pictures of his graduation,” Teesch-Maguire said. “These were precious moments.”
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
