One of the state’s three death-row inmates is asking the Colorado Court of Appeals to toss out his attempted first-degree murder conviction.
On Tuesday, Robert Ray, 28, did not challenge the guilty verdict that sent him to death row in 2009.
Instead, Ray is asking the three-judge panel to reverse his conviction in another case involving a shooting in an Aurora park on July 4, 2004. In that case, Ray was convicted of attempted first-degree murder and first-degree assault.
and sentenced to death for orchestrating the June 20, 2005, killings of Javad Marshall-Fields and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe, both 22. The two were shot and killed by Ray’s friend, Sir Mario Owens, just before Marshall-Fields was scheduled to testify against Ray in the trial for Vann’s death. Marshall-Fields was the son of state Rep. Rhonda Fields.
Prosecutors included the park shooting as one of the aggravating factors for why Ray should be sentenced to death.
On Tuesday, Ray’s attorney, Gail Johnson, argued that Ray did not get a fair trial before the jury convicted him of attempted murder and asked the appeals court to reverse the guilty verdict. She argued that jurors in the case had inappropriate access to a DVD recording of an interview with one of the witnesses who saw the park shooting.
According to a filing in the appeal, the witness said Ray shouted, “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill everybody!”
Johnson argued that the judge overseeing the trial erred when he ruled that jurors could view the DVD as many times as they wanted.
But the judges questioned whether jurors even asked to view the video during their deliberations.
“We have no idea whether the jury ever saw it again,” Judge Jerry Jones said.
John Lee, who argued for the Colorado attorney general’s office, said there was no evidence the jury even asked to view the video and called the argument moot.
Johnson also said the trial court improperly ignored a note from one juror the morning before a verdict was reached. The juror wrote that the jury could not reach a verdict without violating his belief in justice.
The judge should have told the juror that a mistrial was possible if the jury was at a deadlock, Johnson argued.
Both Lee and the judges pointed out that at the time the note was received, defense attorneys objected to removing the juror.
“It’s our position that the alleged errors in this case were invited,” Lee said.
The judges will issue a written opinion.
for shooting and killing Marshall-Fields and Wolfe. He also is appealing his case.
Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794, jsteffen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jsteffendp
Updated Tuesday, December 10, 2014 at 10:52 a.m.: This story has been updated to correct the crime Robert Ray was convicted of.
