Murder charges filed against three suspects in the January shooting death of an Aurora teenager have been dropped due to a lack of evidence, according to judicial officials.
Prosecutors have an “ethical duty” to dismiss charges when they lack sufficient evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in court, Eric Ross, a spokesperson for the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office, said in an emailed statement to The Denver Post.
“If there’s not a likelihood of securing a guilty conviction at trial based on the facts and evidence we have present, then we are ethically obligated to dismiss the charge, or in some cases, an entire case,” Ross said. “All three cases are still pending and going through the court system, but the second-degree murder charges are no longer being pursued at this time.”
The motions filed in court by Arapahoe County District Attorney Amy Padden to dismiss the second-degree murder charges stated the charges were “no longer in the interests of justice.”
Denver North High School student Audrina Fedelina Arrington, 16, was shot and killed on Jan. 7 after two men broke into her family’s apartment in the 10600 block of East Jewell Avenue.
Investigators said there was a fight between the suspects and the apartment residents during which at least five shots were fired.
Arrington was hit by at least one of those bullets in her jaw and later died from her injuries at the hospital, according to an arrest affidavit.
Two men and a woman were arrested in the week following the shooting, and all faced two second-degree murder charges, according to court records.
Those charges have now been dropped, but other charges in the case remain.
After the dropped murder charges, 35-year-old Cooper Miller and 51-year-old David Gunion still face eight felonies each, including:
- One count of first-degree burglary with assault or menacing
- One count of conspiracy to commit first-degree burglary with assault or menacing
- Two counts of attempted aggravated robbery
- Two counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery
- One count of menacing with a weapon
- One count of possessing a weapon as a previous offender
Miller is next scheduled to appear in court on June 5 for a preliminary hearing, and Gunion will appear on June 9.
April Collingwood, 45, is next scheduled to appear in court for a hearing on May 30. She faces nine felony charges, including:
- One count of first-degree burglary with assault or menacing
- One count of conspiracy to commit first-degree burglary with assault or menacing
- Two counts of attempted aggravated robbery
- Two counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery
- Two counts of solicitation to commit aggravated robbery
- One count of menacing with a weapon
Multiple violent crime sentence enhancers have been added to each of the three cases, court records show.
