A grand jury this week indicted Brandon David Mumma, the last person known to have been with Jax Gratton before she disappeared last year, on felony tampering charges related to her death, Jefferson County prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Mumma, 44, is charged with tampering with a deceased human body and tampering with evidence in connection with the death of Gratton, a 34-year-old transgender woman from Denver who disappeared in April and was found dead in a Lakewood alley in June.
Lakewood police were heavily criticized for their handling of the investigation into Gratton’s death, including for using her deadname and for an overall lack of transparency about the investigation. That criticism helped spur a push in Lakewood to create an independent civilian oversight board for the city’s police department.
Police considered Gratton’s death to be suspicious, but the coroner ruled the cause and manner of her death to be undetermined.
“The allegations in this indictment follow a months-long, collaborative investigation by the Lakewood Police Department and the Denver Police Department,” District Attorney Alexis King said in a statement. “I want to commend the Lakewood agents whose persistence made this indictment possible, and I thank the victim’s loved ones and the community for their patience as we pursue justice. From the outset, law enforcement and prosecutors have treated this matter with the utmost seriousness, and we remain committed to prosecuting those named to the full extent of the law.”
The two-count indictment, issued Monday, alleges Mumma removed Gratton’s body, personal belongings and other evidence of her death from his office on West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood on April 16 “to avoid detection by police,” according to the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Gratton and Mumma were in a “consensual intimate relationship,” according to prosecutors.
The indictment alleges the two entered Mumma’s office at 9655 W. Colfax Ave. at 10:41 p.m. April 15. Mumma told police Gratton had taken too much of the sedative gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, and passed out while lying on a futon, according to the indictment.
An unnamed male friend arrived at 12:45 a.m. as Gratton slept, snoring loudly and “making gurgling noises,” according to the indictment. Mumma told police that, at one point, Gratton vomited, and he and the friend rolled her onto her side.
Mumma and the unidentified friend left at 1:43 a.m., leaving Gratton “alone and asleep under the influence of drugs,” according to prosecutors.
Mumma later acknowledged to police that “he should have called 911 when Jax was vomiting because she could have been overdosing,” according to the indictment.
Nobody came or left the office unit until Mumma returned at 5:55 a.m., based on security camera footage, according to prosecutors.
Gratton’s last active session on her phone was in the early morning hours of April 16 and it used an IP address associated with that Lakewood address, according to prosecutors.
Mumma told investigators that when he returned to his office that morning in April, Gratton was gone. He said she had left personal items, including her shoes and a bag, that he placed in his car “to return to her at a later time,” according to the indictment.
But when he left again at 6:57 a.m., he moved his vehicle to the north side of the building, according to surveillance video footage reviewed by police. He went back in, the indictment alleges, and came out with trash bags that he threw into a dumpster before leaving the area.
“He is not observed placing Jax’s personal items into his vehicle,” the indictment states.
Nearly two months later, on June 6, Gratton’s body was discovered in a narrow, 4-foot-wide space between the buildings at 9655 and 9699 W. Colfax Ave. that is locked and inaccessible to the general public, prosecutors said.
She was found without shoes but wearing the same clothes she had on when she left her Denver apartment on April 15, according to prosecutors.
A grate from an air conditioning unit was on top of her lower body. The indictment alleges there was “a significant dent” on top of the air conditioning unit directly below the second-story window of Mumma’s office.
Her body was found directly beneath a window on the north side of Mumma’s office that had a bent and “partially askew” screen, according to the indictment.
In a June 20 interview with Lakewood police, “Mumma was confronted with the possibility of throwing a body out of his office window,” according to the indictment.
Mumma told investigators that he and Gratton had talked about crawling out of his office window and leaping to the roof next door to smoke, and theorized she “may have tried to do so and fell,” according to the indictment.
Police found no cigarettes or lighters on or near Gratton’s body, and her roommate told investigators that he did not know Gratton to smoke cigarettes, according to the court document.
By the time police searched Mumma’s office on May 29, the futon that had been there in April was gone, and none of Gratton’s personal belongings, including her cellphone, were found, according to prosecutors.
The unidentified second man who was with Gratton and Mumma early on April 16 was cooperative with police and “is not believed to have participated in the destruction or removal of any evidence associated with Gratton,” according to prosecutors.
Mumma was arrested in Summit County on Wednesday. He was transferred to the Jefferson County jail later in the evening and is being held on $100,000 cash bail. He is expected to appear in court Friday.
