One 42-year-old convicted killer told therapists at a prison for Colorado’s most severely mentally ill inmates that he planned to buy a gun, scratch off its serial number and kill as many people as he could.
Just before the convicted killer’s release on Aug. 28 from San Carlos Correctional Facility in Pueblo, the killer told mental health officials that he was planning to attend the Colorado State Fair, also in Pueblo, a few hours after his release, prison records indicate.
No one blocked his release, no one alerted the public. Instead, prison officials sent a “community safety alert” to law enforcement officials to be on the lookout for parolees deemed a possible threat.
Those alerts also ask law enforcement officials not to alarm the public by discussing the release of inmates such as the killer in Pueblo.
“That is one scary individual. I can’t imagine you releasing someone like that,” Greeley Police Chief Jerry Garner said. “That’s a big red warning note right there.”
But very little can be done once a convict finishes his term. Although new cases can be filed when a threat constitutes a new crime, authorities rarely refer such threats for prosecution or prosecutors don’t file them because of staffing limitations, The Denver Post has found.
“I don’t recall ever seeing a case like that,” said Thom LeDoux, the district attorney in Fremont County, the home of six state prisons. “We’re kind of ground zero for the (Colorado) Department of Corrections.”
A Denver-area homicide detective released a few of the community safety alerts to The Post on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release them. In addition to the killer in Pueblo, other inmates released in recent months threatened murder on Colorado streets and in a Denver high school.
The Pueblo inmate didn’t carry out his threat, and later recanted it. But others before him went on to kill after making similar threats.
One parolee, Evan Ebel, walked out of prison in January 2013 despite warnings by those processing his release. Within two months, he had killed two men, including state prisons chief Tom Clements.
Ebel was released from prison after making repeated threats to kill and torture correctional officers and others.
One idea proposed after Ebel’s killing spree and the Aurora theater shootings was passing a law giving authorities the right to civilly commit offenders indefinitely deemed by mental health experts to be too dangerous to release.
Internal review
Both Gov. John Hickenlooper and Rick Raemisch, executive director of CDOC, have said in prior interviews that they would consider such a law. Hickenlooper was unavailable for comment on Friday, his spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail.
“That’s something we definitely need to consider doing. … There are some (parolees) coming out that we know are going to commit new crimes,” Raemisch said. “Currently, it’s not part of the legislation we are proposing this year, but it’s something that could be added.”
He said he and his staff would need to review the idea internally and speak with legal counselors to make sure it’s constitutional before making a proposal.
“You would have to be very, very careful with it,” Garner said about the notion of keeping such inmates locked up. “That sounds very much like a gulag.”
He added that in his 45-year law enforcement career, he has known only about five or six offenders “who should never see the light of day.”
Adrienne Jacobson, spokeswoman for the CDOC, asked The Post not to publish a story about the paroled killer or other similar offenders.
“It could cause a law enforcement concern when it wouldn’t ordinarily. … Not that society should be scared or panicking. … It’s a very sensitive proposition,” Jacobson said.
Ebel’s threat likely constituted misdemeanor harassment, Garner said.
LeDoux said because of budget-related staffing issues, his office prosecutes only felonies. His staff prosecuted 46 prisoners in 2013, none for threats of violence, he said. LeDoux added that in order for him to file a felony menacing charge, the perceived threat must be in the immediate future, possibly made shortly before parole.
Although the convicted killer was disciplined 12 times during his prison years for assaults and making threats of violence, he was never criminally charged, according to Jacobson and state criminal records.
When he was 20, the killer was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years.
“(He) should be viewed as a threat to the safety of the community at large and more specifically to CDOC employees,” according to the alert.
Released to street
The warning said the killer had an extensive history of impulsive and disruptive behavior. He had been in segregation or in a mental health setting for his entire 22 years in prison. He was released directly from San Carlos to the street on homeless status.
“Without the physical barriers and controls of the prison setting, he should be considered dangerous and a threat to the safety of the public,” the warning said.
On the same day the killer was released, CDOC released a 33-year-old man from a high-security facility. Like the killer, the man, who calls himself a “gangster,” had completed his entire sentence.
“This offender has an extensive history of disruptive behavior, threats to kill correctional staff upon his release, damage to state property, and many other violent tendencies,” an alert says.
The gangster was convicted of first-degree assault in Arapahoe County in 2002. CDOC intelligence officers recorded phone conversations in which he said he “may just get a strap and start grinding,” meaning he will “get a gun and start shooting others.”
“He has expressed to CDOC mental health staff that he has intense desires to go on a shooting spree and then commit suicide once he is released from prison,” the alert says. “If (the gangster) has a mental health episode after his release from prison and decides to follow through with his threats, anyone near (him) or in his line of sight could be in danger of being hurt or killed.”
A third man, a convicted burglar with a history of 12 felony and 51 misdemeanor arrests, was released in Denver on July 16.
The man told mental health workers during a “mental health ramble” that he intended to bomb a high school in Denver.
“Offender kept returning to the topic of bombing the school and his need to do so to get respect. It is unknown if he possesses the capability to plan or carry out such a threat. However, offender will be closely monitored for any dangerous behaviors.”
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, kmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kirkmitchell or coldcases/blog
