In late 2014, we told you about the arrest of Chataignier McCaffrey-Pickett, a then-21-year-old who became the fifth and final person arrest in relation to the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of Fort Collins’ Andrea Bartmess. McCaffrey-Pickett’s final Facebook post before being taken into custody didn’t directly address the case, but…
Last year, we told you about the death of Justin Burns, a fourteen-year-old from Palisade who was accidentally killed while hunting on the Grand Mesa, located on Colorado’s Western Slope. The shooter, Minnesota’s Guy Pohto, was charged in the incident, and Burns’s family has filed a lawsuit against him. Now,…
Last month, we told you about a Park Hill shooting that killed a man and injured a woman. Initial details were scarce, but the gang unit was reportedly on the scene. Weeks later, more information has emerged. The man killed was Tarell Burton, eighteen — and a young father, as…
Our Thomas Mitchell recently reported about a petition to ban all marijuana businesses in Pueblo County. Against this backdrop comes word about two busts of illegal marijuana grows in the jurisdiction — events that could become politicized by both supporters and opponents of the ban. The incidents resulted in the…
When the fourteen-year-old girl woke up unclothed in bed with Isaias Villa, twenty, he insisted that he’d taken care of her — not taken advantage. His DNA told a different story. Villa has now been charged with sexual assault against the teen — although it took nearly a decade to…
The bloodshed continues — and in this case, the victim of a homicide was a family doctor simply trying to aid a woman in distress. Following two fatal shootings on Sunday (one in Denver, the other in Northglenn) and just prior to a stabbing on the 16th Street Mall last…
Yesterday, in reporting about two metro-area shootings — a motorcyclist killed in Denver, a man dead in Northglenn — we noted the unfortunate correlation between warmer weather and violent crimes. Tuesday night, that phenomenon reared its head again on the 16th Street Mall. A stabbing took place on the 16th…
One of the most controversial Colorado stories of 2015 involved a sexting scandal at Canon City High School in which more than 100 students were implicated. At first, authorities hinted that those involved might be prosecuted — but in the end, no criminal charges were pressed. In contrast, Aaron Belanger is…
The Facebook pages of Savanna Grose and Chris Tafoya are tributes to loving parenting. Grose’s intro reads: “I am the luckiest momma in the whole entire world! My daughter is the most amazing person I know!” And Tafoya’s gallery is dominated by photos of him with the couple’s adorable little…
It’s a sad but inescapable annual trend. As the weather warms up, the number of metro-area shootings tends to rise. Witness two fatal incidents that took place yesterday. The first took the life of a motorcyclist in Denver. The second killed a man in Northglenn. The Denver matter is being…
A civil action was filed this week accusing District 6 Commander Tony Lopez of violating protester Jessica Benn’s constitutional rights when he seized her cell phone as she recorded her husband’s arrest last April. The suit claims Lopez and the Denver Police Department violated her First Amendment right to record “newsworthy…
The father of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights is back in jail. Last week Douglas Bruce was sentenced to two years in prison for violating probation, the latest chapter in a checkered past that the Gazette captured in its cover story, “A Greek Tragedy: The Rise and Fall of TABOR…
Former East High School student Elhadji Samba Dioum has taken a plea deal in a criminal trial connected to a police lockdown that occurred on East High’s campus on December 3. On Friday, March 25, Dioum pleaded guilty to third-degree assault – a misdemeanor – as part of a deal…
In February 2015, we told you about a death on Java Court that was being investigated as a homicide. The victim was later identified as Francis Canham, known to friends and neighbors as Frank. Within days, Daniel Gonzales was arrested for the crime even though he’d traveled across the country;…
The phrase “justice delayed is justice denied” doesn’t quite fit cold cases. In such instances, convictions of guilty parties are always preferable to situations in which offenders are never punished for their illegal actions. But the story of one woman’s abuse at the hands of Warren Foster represents a close…
On occasion, we warn readers in advance about potentially disturbing material in a post. We do so again in the case of Colby Messer — and we really, really mean it. According to an arrest affidavit, Messer, a Canadian citizen, has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman he met in…
It wasn’t long ago that Ty Lawson was the face of the Denver Nuggets, who promoted him as one of the premier point guards in the NBA. Now, he’s barely playing for his third team in less than a year — and he’s just been convicted of driving under the…
The inclement weather currently pounding the Denver metro area aren’t idea when it comes to investigating an officer-involved shooting in which one man died. But that’s precisely what’s happening at this hour. Late last night, cops with the Thornton Police Department killed a thus-far-unnamed individual. He first came to an…
Lauren Mann, who grew up in the small, Western Colorado town of Paonia, is making news across the planet for the worst possible reason. She was found dead in her apartment in Vienna, where she was working as an au pair, and police are investigating the case as a homicide…
Last month, we told you about accusations against Rocky Allen, a surgical technician whose alleged theft of the painkiller fentanyl led to fears that as many as 3,000 patients of Swedish Medical Center could have been infected by hepatitis B and C or HIV. Now, another medical professional — Kim Burgans,…
Jessica Lyn Reese was the loving mom of two adorable kids, Hannah and Bennie Jo. Now, her loved ones are raising funds to care for the children. Why? Reese, 29, was stabbed to death in an Aurora condominium — and Charles Bowman Anthony, who was at the residence at the time…
“You never know how in one instance life may change course.” A family member reportedly Facebooked this line shortly after twenty-year-old Jahvell Forrest was arrested for allegedly shooting an Aurora police officer during a November 2014 traffic stop. But while the bust certainly altered Forrest’s trajectory in a permanent way…
