DENVER—After deliberating for approximately four hours, on Friday, December 16, 2022, a jury agreed with Denver District Attorney prosecutors that Arturo Villalobos (age 41) was guilty of murder in the second degree for killing 41-year-old James Nixon on April 14, 2022, in Denver. Just after 6:00 p.m. on April 14th, Nixon walked into the Federico…

DENVER—The Denver District Attorney’s Office today announced it has direct filed a case against 17-year-old Jeramyah Alford. Alford has been charged with the attempted murder of a Denver peace officer. On November 30, 2022, a Denver police officer was in the area of South Parker Road and East Mississippi Avenue when he noticed that the…

DENVER—Prosecutors with the Denver District Attorney’s Office have opened a criminal case charging 46-year-old Stevenson Begay of Colorado Springs with one count of forced sexual assault (F3) and one count of forced unlawful sexual contact (F4). Just before 1:00 a.m. on November 20, 2022, a Denver police officer responded to a 911 call from a…

DENVER—Prosecutors with the Juvenile Unit of the Denver District Attorney’s Office have direct filed a criminal case against Owen Darian Ruiz who was 16-years old at the time he allegedly murdered 16-year-old Juan Herrera-Lozano. On April 23, 2022, at 6:16 p.m. Denver Police officers responded to the Denver Skatepark at 2205 19th Street on a…

DENVER— In October 2021, a complaint was filed with the Denver DA’s Office alleging that Tilo David Lopez Jr. (age 55) and his company, Remodeling Specialists LLC committed elder fraud. An investigator with the office’s Economic Crimes Unit began looking into the allegations and a criminal case was opened in which Lopez was charged with…

DENVER—In 1997, Ray Ojeda (current age 51) kidnapped, sexually assaulted and attempted to murder a 15-year old girl for which he was tried and sentenced to 144-years in prison in 2015. Later, that conviction was reversed on appeal. Prosecutors with the Denver District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Unit reached a plea agreement with Ojeda in…

DENVER—Geoffrey Wescott James (current age 59) was sentenced on Monday by the Honorable Denver District Court Judge Jennifer Torrington to a 12-year prison sentence and to pay more than $5,000,000 in restitution after pleading guilty in September to violating Colorado’s Organized Crime Control Act (F2) and to theft (F3). James is to be remanded to…

DENVER— Denver District Attorney Beth McCann has reviewed the officer-involved shooting incident from July 15, 2022, at 329 East 51st Avenue in Denver and concluded that the shooting death of Mr. Chaz Theodore Gallegos (age 33) by a Denver Police Department officer was legally justified. No criminal charges will be filed against the one officer…

DENVER—In the early morning of November 12, 2021, Denver police officers responded to an apartment at 1222 S. Federal Boulevard where they found 25-year-old Javier Esparza lying on the floor of a bedroom suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Esparza was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Officers also found Jerry Duong (current…

DENVER—Today, Denver District Court Judge Lisa C. Arnolds sentenced Michael Close to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Isabella Thallas and to 48 years for the attempted murder of Darian Simon. The sentences are to run consecutively. Close was also ordered to pay more than $37,000 in restitution. On…