A Littleton man was convicted Thursday night of second-degree attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree assault and three more charges in .
Tyrus Vanmatre, 21, will be sentenced on Oct. 29 for attacking a friend, according to a 5th Judicial District Attorney news release.
According to the victim, Vanmatre, under false pretenses, took him into the woods near Sapphire Point on Swan Mountain Road, in unincorporated Summit County, intending to kill him. Though wounded, the victim was able to fight back and escape. He hid in the woods in the darkness, evading detection as his attacker searched for him.
Just after 3 a.m. June 17, 2014, the 18-year-old victim, covered in blood with deep cuts on his face, was found stumbling on Swan Mountain Road.
Court documents said the victim came to Denver from Wyoming and planned to move in with Vanmatre. After agreeing to travel with him to a party in the mountains, Vanmatre parked at Sapphire Point trailhead before hiking into the woods in search of a man that would give them a handgun for a planned robbery, the release said.
“As they were walking, the victim said he heard Vanmatre say — ‘This seems like the perfect spot’ — just before Vanmatre’s 16-year-old accomplice tried to tase him with a stun gun,” the release said.
The victim testified that Vanmatre then struck him across the face and hand with an 18-inch serrated sword, leaving scars above his left eye, his nose and nearly severing his left thumb. He said he fought back using a knife he had taken from the vehicle when he suspected that the situation was unusual.
When investigators interviewed Vanmatre, the release said, he changed his story several times, including denying that he was in Summit County at the time of the attack, saying he had gotten lost looking for a party and that he had only wanted to “scare” the victim.
“To lure a friend to an isolated area in the mountains where you immobilize them with a stun gun and then attack them with a sword is something out of a horror movie,” said District Attorney Bruce Brown. “The victim, by sheer tenacity and will to live, was able to get his wounded body off the mountain to find help.”
Elizabeth Hernandez: 303-954-1223, ehernandez@ denverpost.com or twitter.com/ehernandez
