Before I get started on talking in specifics
about the charges that we filed today,
I do want to thank a couple of
people that are here with us.
One is our chief of police for
Colorado Springs Police Department,
Adrian Vasquez and then Matt Fodor from FBI.
Both of those agencies have worked
tirelessly to get us to this point
today and will continue to work
tirelessly as this case progresses.
It is very typical in a high level case
like this that the investigation will
continue for the entirety of the case as it.
As we're in court, because of that,
we're going to be very careful
about what we share and don't
share in these sorts of settings.
The reason for that is we want to protect
our ability to prosecute this case to the
fullest extent of our ability to do so.
So bear with us as we talk
about some of these things.
Obviously, today we filed formal charges,
305 total counts of of charges,
including multiple counts of murder in the
first degree under two different theories,
both with intent and deliberation of
five counts of that version of murder,
and then five counts of
extreme indifference murder.
Both of those potential sentences
are life in prison without parole,
meaning that if somebody is
convicted of those offenses,
they will serve the remainder of their
life in prison without breathing.
Free air again.
We also charged a number
of attempted murders,
both for intent and deliberation,
and extreme indifference as well.
Those are less than life
in prison without parole,
but they do carry with them
up to a very significant.
Period of time in prison,
including up to 48 years for each
of those we do have the ability
to ask for at some point down the
road for consecutive sentencing.
And I'm talking generally speaking here.
That will be ultimately up to the
facts that we present in the case
and if we are able to achieve
convictions in this case,
I want to reiterate that charges
are merely allegations,
everybody that is charged with a crime.
Is presumed to be innocent until proven
guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,
and that certainly applies in this case.
We are not going to talk about
facts of the investigation so that
we can again protect our ability to
prosecute this case going forward.
The next court date is a preliminary
hearing slash proof evident presumption.
Great.
Well,
we have to present there is enough
evidence to bind this case over for trial.
That will be the first glimpse into
some of the investigation that has
occurred already in this case and some
of the investigation that will occur.
Down the road.
At the conclusion of that hearing,
we will be asking the judge to again
bind the defendant over on the charges
and also to continue to hold the
defendant without bond going forward.
We certainly feel that we
have enough to achieve that,
but ultimately that will be up to the judge.
That setting will be set for
February 22nd to the 24th.
We'll start at 8:30 in the morning
and then go all day until we conclude
the presentation of evidence,
the typical response to that hearing.
Will be to have an arraignment
setting most times.
In most generalized cases at,
arraignment occurs at the conclusion of
the preliminary hearing in murder cases.
And certainly in murder
cases of this magnitude,
it is not uncommon for defense
to set out arraignment to some
date further down the road.
At arraignment is when a
defendant will enter their formal,
their formal plea.
In almost all cases,
that formal plea will be not guilty,
meaning that they are going
to contest the charges.
We don't know what will happen in this
case because that will be up to the
defendant and his attorneys from that
point forward when an arraignment occurs.
That's when the speedy trial clock
starts in the state of Colorado.
We have six months to get a case to
trial from that arraignment date.
Defendant does not have to
honor the six months,
so they can ask for continuances.
The people that protect that six
month speedy trial requirement
or the prosecution and the court,
it's it's a joint responsibility from
the court and from the prosecution.
So oftentimes we will not be the
ones asking for continuances if
there are need for continuances.
So with that, I think that's pretty
much everything that I want to
share at this particular point.
Does anybody have any questions
on those specific issues that
I've talked about today?
Well, I think the message that we
sent is obviously when you file 305
counts in a case that tells the public,
this Community, this state and this
nation that we are taking this case
as serious as we possibly can,
meaning that we are going to prosecute
this case to the fullest extent of the law.
We also have filed bias motivated
charges in this case,
meaning that we think that there's enough.
Evidence to satisfy our burden
on bias motivated offenses.
We're not going to tolerate
actions against community members
based on their sexual identity.
Those types of things,
members of that community have been harassed,
intimidated, and abused for too long.
That's not going to occur in the 4th
Judicial district and so it's important
that we talk about that as well.
Hopefully that answer your question.
Yeah. So you're asking about evidence.
I'm not going to talk about that.
We'll talk about evidence presentation
when we get to those settings.
In this case, I think there are plenty
of things that are obvious that have
been covered in the media already.
And I'm going to stop the answer at
that point because I do want to make
sure that we protect our ability to
prosecute this case going forward.
We obviously think we have enough evidence
to go forward on those charges and and
I'm going to leave it at that, yes.
Yeah. So, one,
I think transparency is important.
Transparency always has limits on
what we can and can't talk about.
And I've sort of alluded to
some of that stuff here today.
Our ethics rules on say what we
can and can't say as it relates
to our practice of law and there
are special responsibilities
for prosecutors specifically.
Oftentimes in in cases,
especially cases of this magnitude,
arrest affidavits will be sealed so
that we can protect the the ability to
investigate the case going forward.
That's what occurred here.
So when we file for an arrest
warrant from police,
we'll file a motion to have that sealed.
We don't object to it being
unsealed at the appropriate time.
We also want to make sure that we
communicate with victims so that they
know what's in it before the general
media and members of the public know.
I know that.
In cases like this, there's attention.
There's attention from what the
community wants to know about this case,
and there's a great thirst
to get that information.
The media wants to give that
information to the public.
But in order to protect our case
and our ability to prosecute,
we have to be very careful about how we
share that information and what we share.
And so there will always
be that tension in place,
but we're going to do our best to make
sure that we're walking that line in
an appropriate way and protecting
our ability to hold the line on
accountability here with this case.
Generally, it would be
very initial information.
Typically it's going to be
much less information than than
what you might expect actually,
because it's very early on in the
investigation when something like
that is potentially written up.
So it may be not very much information,
or maybe less information than
is already known in the public.
So it's it's kind of case dependent.
I'm trying to be careful and not say
what's in this particular affidavit,
obviously until we have a chance
to talk to the to all the family
members and victims.
But don't be surprised if there's
actually already more information
out there from other media reports
than what's in that affidavit.
Yeah, I'm not going to speculate on on that.
Yeah. I'm not going to share the,
the private conversation
that we have obviously,
and I know that's not what you're asking,
really answering questions about process.
Oftentimes victims in cases like this have
never experienced the criminal justice
system before and have certainly not
experienced the criminal justice system
to the level that this case presents.
And so we're talking about process.
What's the next step,
what should we expect to happen in the case?
What are potential ultimate sentencing
options with the charges that we filed
and then just answering questions
that we can share with them about
investigation and that kind of thing.
I can tell you that those,
those people are hurting and
it's obvious why they're hurting,
and that's not going to be diminished at
all by what happens in this court system.
The second part of that.
There's no way for me to speculate
as to whether the US Attorney's
office will eventually file charges.
I can tell you that we've
been working very closely.
Obviously, I've I've mentioned that the
FBI has worked really hard on this case.
ATF has worked hard in this case.
I've had plenty of conversations
with US attorney,
but I'm not going to speculate
as to whether they decide to
pursue any charges on this case
or not as it relates to your,
the first part of your question,
the bias motivated crimes.
The the bias motivated statute was actually
changed only a couple of years ago.
If it was not for that change,
we would probably not be able
to charge it in this case.
And so the wording was changed to
allow it to be committed in whole or in
part based on bias and there's a whole
list of biases listed in that statute.
The top level charge for the bias
motivated crime is only an F5.
That's a very low level felony
in the state of Colorado.
It's a probation eligible offense.
So I mentioned early on at a
very early press conference that
our top end charges are always
going to be the murder charges.
Those bias motivated charges do
not enhance in any way our top
end sentencing which is life in
prison without parole potential.
So, so again they're very low level charges.
To get to that F5 you have
to have bodily injury.
If there's no bodily injury but somebody
was present that's a Class 1 misdemeanor.
So those are we're talking
very low level offenses here.
You know, obviously we've had other
big cases in the state of Colorado.
You know, I can think of a few off
the top of my head where there were
multiple people that were victimized.
Aurora theater shooter,
I would imagine probably had.
At least this many charges.
I don't know the number of of
charges in that case it's.
This is certainly does not represent
the most charges that have ever
been filed in the state of Colorado,
at least to my knowledge.
I think it's probably the most
charges that we've ever filed in
the single case on a murder case
like this in the state of Colorado,
but there could be others out there
that I'm just not thinking of right now.
Yeah, I'm not going to talk about
that right now. That gets too close
to the heart of the investigation.
So Colorado Statute is very restrictive
and that's the ceiling statute.
Basically all I can say about
specifically what you're asking
about is that no records exist that
comes specifically from statute
and I can tell you the number of
that statute if I have it here.
I don't have ohh, it's 24727032 B.
If a person asks about a sealed record,
my only response can be.
Legally no such record exists and that's
all I can say at this particular time.
I can't say anything more than what I said,
which is no records exist.
Members in our community.
In the courtroom.
Well, you know, I think at the
very first setting the suspects
demeanor and and body movements
were much different than today.
Obviously he walked into the courtroom
today appears to have healed to some
degree from the bruising that was
apparent on his face at the last setting.
And so I would just leave it at that.
I'm not going to get into.
Yeah. So we're actually still
trying to develop exactly the number
of people that were in the club.
And so I mentioned in the courtroom
that it is somewhat likely that
we amend the charges in this case.
That would be to potentially add more
victims that we haven't yet identified,
and I know that Colorado Springs police and
the FBI are working on that as we speak.
When that happens,
that number could go up.
But yeah, generally speaking,
people that were inside the club would
qualify for those types of charges.
That we've been able to verify
we're in the club and that that
could grow or it could shrink.
I'm gonna answer that
question in a general way.
It is not uncommon in cases like
this that that becomes an issue.
I'm not going to speculate that that
will become an issue in this case.
It's premature.
Yeah, so. So like I said,
the we charge two different
theories of first degree murder.
Both of them have the same top end
punishment, which is if somebody's
convicted of first degree murder,
it's a sentence of life in prison
without the ability to parole,
meaning that they will spend the
rest of their life in prison.
The two different versions of murder that we
charged is after deliberation with intent.
That's what most people think about
when they think of first degree murder.
When somebody plans to go kill somebody,
extreme indifference murder
is more generalized,
meaning that they don't have to have
the intent to kill a specific person.
They would.
Say there's a park full of people and
they go to that park and they fire a
firearm indiscriminately into that park.
That would be a good application,
an example of how extreme indifference,
murder is used.
Like I said, though,
they both have the same sentencing option,
which is life in prison without parole.
We look at evidence to support our charges.
We have an ethical obligation to only
file charges that we think we can prove
in front of the court or a jury and so
we feel like we have enough evidence to
charge those bias motivated charges.
As to that specific question,
it's part of the picture.
So last thing I want to just point out is,
is that we're obviously taking
this case very seriously.
I've got a very strong team
of prosecutors on this case.
I will be on this case for
the entirety of the case.
I've got Reginald Short who is one of
the chief Deputy DA's in this office.
He's prosecuted many high level charges.
He will be on this case.
Jennifer Viehman is also a chief deputy
DA in this office and has prosecuted
many high level cases including the
Patrick Frazee case that many of you are.
Familiar with she's on this case.
We've got our top end paralegals
on this case, victim advocates,
a whole team of victim advocates.
We have the ability and the
willingness to pursue this case to
the very end and to achieve the
right justice for these victims.
And we intend to do that again with
the qualification of everybody that's
charged with crimes is presumed innocent
until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
With that,
I'll ask any other questions.
Yeah.
Do you mean the actual trial
process or the this court process?
It is not uncommon that these things
will take some amount of time.
I would be surprised if we get to an
actual jury trial sometime IN2023I suspect
it'll be sometime later than that,
but again, that's fluid and and not
necessarily up to the prosecution.
Like I said, we have six months from
the arraignment date of an official not
guilty plea being entered to try this case.
Defense can elongate that based
on their processes. We cannot.
It could be even further out than that.
I mean, it's, it's not uncommon.
I've got a murder case now
that is on year three, so.
Alright, any other questions?
Alright, thank you all for being here.