A plea deal leading to a lesser charge and prison sentence in a Lone Tree man’s 1985 despite DNA evidence linking a suspect to the case — is the latest fallout of a former Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist’s decades of misconduct, court officials said this week.
Michael Shannel Jefferson was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and kidnapping in 2021, 36 years after the death of Lone Tree businessman Roger Dean, 51, on Nov. 21, 1985.
Dean and his wife, D.J., were at home when a masked intruder broke in and forced Roger Dean to tie up his wife, according to previous reporting. D.J. Dean told police she heard scuffling and gunshots downstairs and found her husband’s body.
Jefferson was identified as a suspect after a crime analyst linked him to the case by comparing DNA from a ski mask left at the scene to the DNA of Jefferson’s deceased parents, police said.
Douglas County prosecutors were ready to go to trial when news broke that longtime CBI scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods was under investigation for mishandling DNA tests by altering, deleting and omitting data in her lab work throughout her 30-year career, District Attorney George Brauchler said Friday. Woods was the first person to process the DNA sample from the Deans’ home.
Douglas County investigators verified the DNA results linking Jefferson to the scene through an outside lab, but they were now faced with tainting their lynchpin piece of evidence, Brauchler said.
“We’re now in the case where this thing becomes a sideshow and whether we call her or not, she’s going to be a part of this trial,” Brauchler said.
With the looming possibility that the DNA scandal could create enough doubt for a jury to return a not-guilty verdict, prosecutors offered Jefferson a plea deal.
He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder in August. Two counts of murder and one count of kidnapping were dismissed as part of a plea agreement, according to court records.
In a statement, Roger and D.J. Dean’s daughter, Tamara Harney, thanked the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office for never giving up on her family.
“Jefferson has never taken any accountability for his actions. I’m pleased with the sentence and feel a sense of closure, but nothing can change the fact I’ve lived without a father for 39 years,” Harney said.
Jefferson maintains he is not guilty and “took his fate into his own hands” by accepting the plea deal, his attorney Michael Faye said in a statement.
“He was not about to risk the rest of his life in prison at the hands of a system that he no longer had any faith in,” Faye said. “Nobody knows the injustices of our criminal justice system more than Mr. Jefferson, and I cannot blame him for choosing this path, as difficult as it was.”
Woods’ actions would have helped Jefferson’s defense, but Faye said there were other factors, like an unknown male DNA contributor on the ski mask, that “made their case against Mr. Jefferson questionable.”
The outcome of the case was a mixed bag for prosecutors and law enforcement who spent years working on it, Brauchler said.
“You can tell there’s some disappointment from Sheriff (Darren) Weekly and the other sheriffs,” Brauchler said. “In 1985 if we got this guy it’s a death penalty case. Instead not only did they not have a shot at that, they don’t have a shot at life without the possibility of parole.”
