The two measures are among the bigger Democratic priorities this legislative session, and they’re also among the most controversial — even within the majority caucus.

Senate Bill 3, which would limit the sale of certain semiautomatic guns that accept detachable magazines, is scheduled to be heard by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The committee is scheduled to meet after the House concludes its floor votes.

The bill underwent substantial amendments during its journey through the Senate as proponents sought to secure enough support for passage.

Senate Bill 5, which would eliminate the need for a second vote by new unions trying to secure their first contract — related to negotiating dues and fees — is set to be heard by the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. The proposal has been a flashpoint between business and labor interests and has drawn concerns that it would upend the decades-long balance of power between unions and employers under the “Labor Peace Act.”

Here’s what else of note is happening in the Capitol this week. Planned votes, debates and committee hearings are always subject to change.

Sundance tax credit

House Bill 1005, a proposed $34 million tax credit aimed specifically at luring the Sundance Film Festival to Boulder, is scheduled for debate by the full House of Representatives on Tuesday.

If it passes that chamber, it will still need to pass the Senate.

Pretrial release rules

The House Judiciary Committee will hear a bill on Wednesday afternoon that would limit when people suspected of violent crimes can be released from custody on their own recognizance. While House Bill 1072 has been in the works since before the stabbing attacks on the 16th Street Mall that left one person dead, its sponsors say the spree gives it an extra emphasis. 

Traffic stop rules

Following that bill on Wednesday, the Judiciary Committee is also slated to hear House Bill 1243. It would prohibit law enforcement officers from asking motorists they pull over the reason for the traffic stop, requiring the officer to just tell the driver the reason.

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Denver police reported on social media at 11:09 p.m. Thursday that a woman had been stabbed in the 200 block of South Meade Street. At 1:04 a.m. Friday, police reported a second stabbing in the 1100 block of 29th Street, followed by a third stabbing in the 2300 block of Glenarm Place at 1:10 a.m.

A Denver police spokesperson wrote in emails Friday the victim and suspect knew each other in each of the three cases. They also wrote that two of the victims sustained minor injuries, and all three are expected to survive.

One person was arrested on suspicion of second-degree assault after the Glenarm Place stabbing, according to police. Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to contact investigators at 720-913-7867.

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Her boyfriend, James Sanchez, apologized and hugged her and said he felt so bad, said he wanted to go to church to seek forgiveness, and then went, Terrazas said. But a few weeks later, Terrazas found photos on a cellphone of his mother’s face, beaten up. At first she said she’d fallen into a table. Then she admitted Sanchez hit her again, he said.

She said she’d leave him, but her father was dying and she was struggling with addiction, and sometimes Sanchez was kind. A few days after Christmas 2023, her boyfriend broke her nose in the middle of the night, went to jail, bonded out, came back, Terrazas said. Sanchez ignored the court’s protection order that said he couldn’t be at their house.

And then, on March 2, the day after her father’s funeral, Desiree Terrazas was shot to death a block from the family’s Denver home. Sanchez was charged with first-degree murder. (He has pleaded not guilty to killing her, as well as to separate assault charges connected to the Christmas incident.)

Police later found a notebook labeled with the name “James,” in which someone wrote that they’d violated a protection order and were going to jail and, “That is why I did it.”

“This is Desiree’s fault,” the note read.

Desiree Terrazas died just four months after the first blow, her son said. She was fierce, intense and a jack of all trades, he said. She once built a table for their dining room, carefully sanding and staining. She was beautiful and blunt. Her funeral was packed.

“There were so many people there,” said Damien Terrazas, 18. “I’m like, ‘My mom was loved — and she didn’t feel like it.’ ”

His mother’s death was part of what Denver police Chief Ron Thomas calls a “disturbing” jump in domestic violence in the city in 2024 that came even as homicides and non-fatal shootings significantly declined.

Homicides plunged 17% in Denver last year, dropping to 69 killings in 2024 from 84 in 2023 and nearing a low not seen in the city since 2019, before crime surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-fatal shootings dropped almost 10% last year, with 55 fewer people shot in 2024 than the year prior.

Within that drop, domestic violence homicides and assaults increased: 12 people were killed in domestic violence incidents in 2024, a higher percentage of overall victims than in any other year since at least 2019. Domestic violence assaults surged 44% in 2024 compared to 2023, police data shows.

The increase in domestic violence bucks a broader trend of declining and flat crime: Denver’s violent crime — sex assaults, robberies, murders and aggravated assaults — stayed almost flat in 2024, with a quarter of a percent increase over the prior year. Property crime was down 17%, driven by large year-over-year drops in the number of stolen cars and thefts from vehicles, police records show.

“I’m happy to see that just about every significant crime category was down,” Thomas said. “We do see the things that are up, and we’re not going to just shrug our shoulders. We’re going to see if there are things that we can do to impact that.”

The city in 2024 saw an uptick in thefts (up 10% from 2023), simple assaults (up 15%) and drug- and alcohol-related crimes (up 18%), the data shows.

There’s a lingering perception that Denver is unsafe, Thomas said, even as homicides and shootings decline.

The police department wants to change that perception, and will increase its focus on petty thefts and drug- and alcohol-related crimes in 2025 to try to do so, Thomas said.

“If you see people standing around on the corner, or you see just open drug use, that gives a perception that it’s just a lawless community,” he said. “That’s something we need to be much more responsive to. Even something as simple as a convenience store having to close because of repeated thefts, that can impact people’s perception of safety.

“So that’s why we’re going to renew our focus on petty theft and those kinds of things that seem to drive the perception of safety sometimes even more than violent crime (does).”

Homicides and shootings drop

The 69 homicides in Denver last year represent a 28% decrease from the recent peak of 96 homicides in 2021 and continues the downward trend seen since then — but is still above the 63 homicides the city recorded in 2019.

The city experienced a drop in homicides in which the suspect used a gun — there were 67 fatal shootings in 2023, compared to just 49 in 2024. The city also saw an increase in homicides committed with bodily force — from just two in 2023 to seven in 2024.

Non-fatal shootings declined to 203 shootings with 239 victims in 2024 from 225 shootings with 294 victims in 2023. That’s a 10% drop in shootings and 19% drop in the number of victims.

Seven of 2024’s homicide victims were children — the same number of children killed in 2023 — including a baby girl and six victims who were 16 or 17 years old, the police data shows.

Giovanni Heredia, 17, was just starting to go out more on his own when he was killed in a shooting at a Green Valley Ranch birthday party, said his mother, Jenny, who spoke on the condition she be identified only by her first name because her son’s killer has not been caught.

Giovanni was one of four people shot at a house party early on Feb. 4, caught in the crossfire of a dispute between others, police said. He wasn’t in a gang, Jenny said. He’d gone to the party because a friend’s friend was playing in a band there. He’d recently taken up guitar and was looking to start his own group.

He was the kind of kid who’d try anything, she said. He got in trouble at school just once, when he pushed a kid who was picking on another student with autism. When they went on vacation to the beach, he’d drop his luggage and run to the sand, stay by the water all day. He was quick to say, “I love you.”

His death was devastating, Jenny said. On Nov. 2, the Day of the Dead, the family cooked Giovanni’s favorite dish: fish tacos with cabbage and pico de gallo. They remembered him. Laughed, and cried. She wants to see the person responsible for his death arrested.

“It’s not fair for this person to be out on the streets, walking free,” she said.

Police made arrests in 41 of 2024’s homicides, and another 10 cases were closed through other means, like the death of a suspect or with no charges filed because the killer acted in self-defense.

Fifteen of last year’s homicide cases are still open, police records show.

Domestic violence increased

Ivanna Johnson sees the signs now that it’s too late.

Her son, 23-year-old Dylan Adams, was shot to death at an apartment complex in Denver on April 2. Police haven’t made an arrest, but they’ve classified the case as domestic violence committed by an intimate partner.

The investigation remains open. “Detectives are working to ensure sufficient evidence exists to support the filing of charges,” a Denver police spokesperson said in a statement.

Johnson said she believes her son’s girlfriend was abusive, that she shot him when he tried to leave that day. Johnson had no idea what her son was facing at the time, but she learned details from his friends afterward that made things click.

She said they told her the girlfriend shattered Adams’ phone frequently, which explained why her son’s phone was broken every few weeks. They told her she pulled his hair, which explained why he’d suddenly cut his locks.

“There was a lot of secrecy and a lot of deceit,” Johnson said. “…I know there’s a lot of shame when you talk about domestic violence, and even more so when it is at the hands of a female toward a male.”

Johnson raised her son, Dylan Montgomery Adams, to never lay hands on a woman. She picked his middle name because his great-grandmother marched with Rosa Parks, and she never wanted him to forget where he came from. He was a good kid, she said. He wasn’t in a gang, wasn’t violent.

She thought her son would have had the tools to get out of such a relationship, and she’s heartbroken that he couldn’t. He was a sensitive kid, she said.

Once when Adams was in high school, he developed a crush on a cashier at a Target store. When his stepfather suggested the way to talk to a woman was to strike up a conversation about something she was knowledgeable about, Adams came up with a plan.

The next time he was at Target, he grabbed several boxes of tampons and took them to the cashier’s line. Then he asked his crush for her opinion: which ones did she prefer, which ones did she use?

“He was so serious and so earnest,” Johnson said, adding he really thought he had game. “And we were like, ‘Bro.’ ”

She and her son visited national parks together; he loved being outside. Now, Johnson is visiting the parks by herself. She brings stones made from his ashes with her on every trip.

“I take him with me and I breathe his name to the four corners of the Earth,” she said.

Adams was one of four men killed in domestic violence incidents last year — a full third of the city’s 2024 fatal domestic violence victims, according to police data.

The growing number of domestic violence killings and assaults is “not surprising,” said Natasha Adler, director of survivor services at the nonprofit SafeHouse Denver. They’ve seen higher numbers of people seeking help since the pandemic ended.

“Domestic violence obviously isn’t caused by stressors,” she said. “It’s not caused by substance use. It is caused by people feeling entitled to use violence over their partners. But things like that can heighten the severity. … So if we are dealing with a tough political climate, housing crisis issues, lack of financial resources, things like that — the more stressors there are, the more likely it is there are going to be assaults.”

She added that SafeHouse sees an uptick in assaults around big sporting events and times of heavy alcohol use. Lately, they’ve noticed a growing number of domestic violence victims who are under the age of 25, Adler said.

The organization has ramped up its prevention and outreach in middle schools and high schools to combat that, she said.

Adler added that survivors served by the nonprofit are often frustrated and endangered when their abusers are released from jail on bail.

“In the past few years we’ve seen an increase in (personal recognizance) bonds, or low bonds,” she said. “So we are seeing a lot of those offenders getting out immediately and they often do re-offend.”

She added that many domestic violence prevention organizations lost federal funding in 2024 as a pool of grant money available through the federal Victims of Crime Act fund dramatically decreased, a move that has also impacted other victim-oriented organizations.

Colorado paid out $18.4 million in federal Victims of Crime Act funding to 181 programs specifically for work related to domestic violence in 2022. That dropped to $7.7 million across 121 programs in both 2023 and 2024, said Paula Vargas, director of strategic communications for the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice.

The Blue Bench, a Denver nonprofit that serves survivors of sexual violence — which often includes domestic violence victims — was forced to cut several positions and scale back its service when it lost 35% of its Victims of Crime Act funding for 2025, said spokesperson Katie Swick.

“We are very concerned about meeting demand, especially with the rhetoric going around right now, we are trying to focus on taking in as many survivors as possible,” Swick said.

Domestic violence presents a unique challenge for policing, Thomas said. Officers will continue to work with domestic violence prevention organizations to try to head off violence before it escalates into assaults or homicides, he said.

“It’s all, obviously, very personal within the home,” he said. “There’s a reluctance to report, a reluctance to come forward. Some of those family dynamics are a little tougher to tackle than some of the challenges we identify in other people who are engaged in violent crime… It’s just more intimate, and I think a little bit more difficult to really identify what the challenge is and provide a solution.”

Denver police to focus on theft, drugs in 2025

Denver police will ramp up their focus on public drug use and theft from stores in 2025, Thomas said.

The city saw a jump in drug- and alcohol-related crime during 2024, with increased reports of illegal drug possession. Thomas attributed some of that bump to proactive policing made possible by a reduction in unhoused people in the downtown core and those who were living in large encampments.

“That increased our capacity and gave us greater opportunity to do proactive work, and really identify some of those persistent drug dealers and drug-involved individuals that are resistant to services,” he said. “…A lot of those arrests were as a result of being responsive to community concerns. You know, people saying, ‘There is a group of people standing outside my business or outside my home. I believe that they’re using or selling drugs,’ and responding to that and identifying that, in many cases yes, they were using or possessing drugs.”

He expects officers to continue to focus on such drug use going forward, with an eye on helping drug users who are ready to be helped, rather than blanket arrests.

“Obviously we don’t want to criminalize addiction,” he said. “Our main targets are those people that are preying on those individuals. It’s incumbent on our part to really identify who is who.”

Officers will also ramp up their focus on retail theft, Thomas said, and are on the lookout for ways to “make it less attractive to commit theft.” One possibility is aggregating the amounts stolen so that a higher-level charge can be brought against a serial shoplifter, Thomas said.

If a person were to steal $20 worth of goods five times, they might be charged with a single count of theft over $100, rather than five lower-level counts of theft, he said.

“I think there’s sort of the perception sometimes that (retail theft) is something that we don’t care so much about, but I think we need to make sure that (businesses) understand that we do care about it, and that we are inclined to do something about it,” Thomas said.

The police department also increased its presence on the 16th Street Mall after an attacker stabbed four people — two fatally — in unprovoked attacks in mid-January.

That will continue, Thomas said. The day after the stabbings, the police department also changed its processes so that desk officers in each district can directly access the surveillance camera feed for the mall, rather than requiring the feed be accessed through a central surveillance center, Thomas said.

“Recognizing that as numbers have gone down pretty significantly, the community doesn’t necessarily feel safe — I know sometimes it’s things like what happened on the 16th Street Mall that drive that perception,” Thomas said. “But I think it’s also some of those day-to-day things that people see, and people hear about and read about that, that impact that perception. So I think that there are things that we can do to adjust that perception.”

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Five years almost to the day before Denver police say Elijah Caudill stabbed four strangers on the 16th Street Mall, he stood on a street corner in a small town in western Kentucky, begging for money from passing drivers.

The path he walked from panhandling in the South to being charged with killing two people along the heart of Denver’s downtown shopping district was marked by homelessness, illegal drug use, escalating violence, arrests, jail, prison and severe mental illness that was obvious to everyone around him.

He said he heard voices in his head that told him to “do bad things,” court records show.

Caudill was connected to help several times. When he was arrested for panhandling in Kentucky on Jan. 10, 2020, the home address Caudill gave officers was a residential Denver facility that offers care to mentally ill teens and young adults who don’t respond to traditional treatment methods. And just months before the stabbings, his case was assigned to Bridges of Colorado, a well-regarded program aimed at connecting criminal defendants with mental illness to support and care.

But none of those efforts pulled him from the years-long spiral that ended when officers spotted him running with a bloody butcher-style knife near Union Station earlier this month.

Caudill, 24, is accused of stabbing four strangers along the 16th Street Mall on Jan. 11 and 12 in four separate attacks, with three back-to-back stabbings in the span of 42 minutes in the early evening of Jan. 11, then the fourth just after 8 p.m. Jan. 12. Two people, 71-year-old Celinda Levno and 34-year-old Nicholas Burkett, were killed. Two additional victims were wounded but survived.

A representative of the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, which is representing Caudill in the murder case, declined to comment for this story. In court filings seeking to limit publicity around the case, Caudill’s attorneys wrote that he is “suffering from obvious, severe and debilitating mental illness.”

Caudill’s history of arrests in the five years before the Denver stabbing spree highlights Colorado’s inadequate mental health care system and shows how the criminal justice system, even at its best, is ill-equipped to help people with severe mental illness.

“Could this have been prevented?” said Julie Reiskin, co-executive director at the nonprofit Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition. “I don’t know. Maybe if we had a perfect system that provided top-notch mental health care at the first sign of it for anyone who is incarcerated, yeah — it probably could have been caught, treated, prevented.

“But that means we as a society, we as a state, would have to put a significant amount of resources into it. Which we have said, as a state, we are not willing to do.”

A long string of arrests

Born in Colorado, Caudill attended Thornton High School through the ninth grade and started using illegal drugs when he was 15, according to records provided by the Colorado Department of Corrections.

He told prison officials he was not close with his family and that he has “no friends and likes it that way,” but enjoys painting, skateboarding and outdoor activities, the records show.

Caudill bounced around between Kentucky, Texas and Colorado in recent years — and he was arrested everywhere he went.

After the Kentucky panhandling arrest — to which Caudill pleaded guilty but is still wanted on a bench warrant because he never paid his fines and fees — Caudill was next arrested in Texas, in the county where his grandparents live, on a misdemeanor charge of possession of a controlled substance in May 2021.

His grandparents did not return requests for comment on this story.

Caudill was back in Colorado by August 2021.

That’s when a property manager at a Westminster shopping center told police he approached Caudill, who was homeless, to ask Caudill not to sleep on the property or use the area “for public urination or defecation,” according to an affidavit and a separate petition for a civil protection order.

Caudill then brandished a knife, lunged at the property owner and threatened to stab him, according to the affidavit.

“I will cut your (expletive) throat,” Caudill said, according to the affidavit.

Caudill spent a month in the Adams County jail after that arrest on charges of menacing and assault. He pleaded guilty to assault, was sentenced to two years of probation and released, according to jail and court records.

Over the next year, he spent just a few days in the Adams County jail, their records show, picked up at one point on a Westminster municipal charge of obstructing police. He pleaded guilty to that charge in April 2022, and, a day later, his probation officer moved to revoke his probation in the 2021 menacing case.

He returned to jail for a few days in June 2022, then was re-released on probation. That lasted a few months, until September 2023, when Caudill was arrested for attempting to snatch a purse from a woman in a Thornton Target store.

The woman told police that Caudill appeared to be homeless, and followed her through the store before grabbing her purse and trying to run away with it.

The woman held on to her purse and bystanders intervened to stop the attempted theft. Caudill did not use or show any weapons during that incident, according to an affidavit. He was arrested the day after the attack when he was seen in the area wearing the same clothing as the attacker.

He spent four months in jail, then pleaded guilty in January 2023 to felony theft and was sentenced to 18 months in community corrections in both the purse-snatching case and the older menacing case, court records show. Community corrections consists of residential facilities, better known as halfway houses, that are a step down from jail or prison.

Caudill spent just 12 days in the halfway house before authorities moved to send him to prison, court records show. In the halfway house, he told staff and residents that he heard voices in his head, and that they would tell him to “do bad things.” He would giggle and laugh at inappropriate times and talked to himself, court records show.

In one incident, Caudill was sitting at a table when he suddenly threw a cup and knocked everything off the table. He told a staff member his actions were due to the voices in his head, and that the voices would tell him they were “coming to get him,” according to court records.

Staff at the halfway house scheduled an emergency mental health evaluation for Caudill. They gave him details on how to get to the appointment and fare for a bus ticket, but Caudill refused to go.

He became “very agitated” when staff confronted him about missing the mental health appointment, court records show. They then recommended he be pulled from the halfway house.

A judge agreed.

Caudill was re-sentenced to 15 months in prison on the theft conviction in late March 2023. The judge also sentenced him to a year in jail on the menacing case, to be served concurrently with the prison term.

Caudill entered state custody in early April 2023, and spent the next four months in prison.

He continued to hear voices, prison records show.

In May 2023, he started screaming while participating in “dayhall time,” the records note. He told a correctional officer that “his voices were bothering him today,” but that watching TV helped.

Caudill participated in a handful of classes and activities while in prison, the Department of Corrections records show. He told prison officials he expected to return to homelessness when he was released.

When asked whether Caudill received mental health treatment in prison, Alondra Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the department, said he completed a “mental health intake” in December 2023, when he was freed on parole.

Caudill was technically paroled in August 2023, but went right back into the Adams County jail to serve his remaining sentence in the 2021 menacing case. He stayed in jail until December 2023.

He lived in a sober-living facility immediately after he was released from jail, his parole records show. He was given snacks, hygiene items, two books of bus tickets and a winter coat. He provided urine samples that were negative for illegal drugs and reported he was regularly taking his medications.

He met with his parole officer regularly for more than a month, the records show. He missed one meeting, but got back with his parole officer on Jan. 22, 2024. He told the officer he was seeking additional treatment and that he felt fine.

Two days later he was arrested again, court records show.

This time, he was in Denver.

Jailed in Denver, then set free

On Jan. 24, 2024, Caudill was at a Denver Cares detox facility on Cherokee Street when a staff member called police and said Caudill had touched her buttocks without permission, according to an affidavit filed against Caudill.

He was arrested, charged with unlawful sexual contact and booked into the Denver County jail.

Within a month, he faced a new charge. An inmate in the jail said Caudill punched him while he was in the shower on Feb. 25, groped him and then stepped away and started masturbating.

Caudill was charged with sexual assault, assault, sexual contact without consent and two counts of indecent exposure.

The next day, Caudill got into a fight with a transgender inmate after the inmate declined to play basketball with Caudill, court records show. Caudill put the inmate into a chokehold and restricted her breathing until she nearly passed out, according to an affidavit filed against him.

Ten minutes later, the two had a second altercation in which Caudill punched the inmate in the face, according to the affidavit. The inmate then fought back, and she put Caudill into a chokehold, squeezing his neck until he struggled to breathe, according to a probable cause statement filed against her.

The two were pulled apart by deputies. Both inmates were checked for injuries and held for investigation of second-degree assault. Caudill was ultimately charged, and the other inmate was not.

Judges set bonds in each of Caudill’s three misdemeanor cases.

He could have left jail if he’d had $350.

He never paid.

In February, a woman told Caudill’s parole officer that he didn’t want to get out of jail, that he was hearing voices again and refusing to take his medications.

Caudill was still in jail in May when he was released from his Department of Corrections parole. He was released because his full sentence ended, said Gonzalez, the department spokeswoman.

As his local cases moved through Denver County Court — he picked up a fourth charge of criminal mischief for allegedly damaging property in the jail in August — authorities recognized his mental health issues, court records show.

They sought an evaluation of his competency — which means they wanted to find out if he was too mentally ill to understand the court process or help to defend himself. Under state law, if defendants are too sick, they cannot be prosecuted until they are healthier.

The judge on Caudill’s cases also appointed a liaison from Bridges of Colorado.

Bridges of Colorado is a state-run office with workers who act as a bridge between Colorado’s criminal justice system and the mental health system. Liaisons, appointed to a case by a judge, help defendants figure out what resources are available and how to access them.

They work with people who are in custody and out of custody, but are only assigned to cases when a defendant has mental health or behavioral health issues. Liaisons most often come into a case after competency has been raised, said Jennifer Turner, Bridges executive director. Defendants with mental health issues often also have substance use disorder, but the program’s first focus is on defendants with mental health issues, she said.

Liaisons are a go-between. They might help defendants set up their health insurance benefits, help defendants find a program for affordable housing or give out a bus pass or Uber voucher. They might help a homeless defendant find a place to stash his belongings where the stuff won’t be stolen, so that the defendant feels able to attend a court hearing instead of skipping. Liaisons might attend that hearing with the defendant to help calm his nerves, or meet a defendant as she is released from jail to point the defendant to a particular shelter or facility where an open bed waits.

Bridges isn’t a residential program. Liaisons don’t provide mental health care, don’t take custody of defendants, don’t enforce defendants’ attendance in court. The program is voluntary for defendants, who can choose to participate or not.

In some rural jurisdictions, liaisons play an outsized role in defendants’ cases because it takes so much work to find sparse mental health resources. In Denver, where there are many more options, liaisons take a “lighter touch,” Turner said.

Liaisons provide regular, neutral reports to the defense attorneys, prosecutors and judges on their cases about the defendants, what resources are available to the defendants and whether defendants are participating in available services.

“We give the courts and attorneys information about the behavioral health needs of the individual,” Turner said. “So the court’s decision-making goes from a narrow lens to a broader lens; they might have more solutions at their fingertips.”

If defendants opt out of the resources they are connected to, liaisons will also report that back to the courts, Turner said.

“We will let the courts know, ‘Hey that person isn’t in that housing placement anymore,’ ” she said. “Typically the court will set a hearing pretty soon after that, and then everybody is involved. And hopefully the participant shows up, but sometimes they don’t, because they might have disengaged from everything.”

The Bridges program is only a few years old in Colorado and has been heralded as a pioneering approach to the oft-fraught intersection of mental health care and the justice system.

“Bridges is one of the most promising things we have going,” said Vincent Atchity, president and CEO of Mental Health Colorado. “But this is really difficult work, so it should also come as no surprise that it is not always going to work.”

A Bridges liaison was appointed to Caudill’s cases in September.

The liaison filed three reports to the court between September and November, and, in early November, a Denver County Court judge adjusted Caudill’s bonds to personal recognizance bonds. Instead of requiring Caudill to pay a few hundred dollars to be released, he was set free without paying any money.

Caudill was released from the Denver jail on Nov. 8. Typically, Bridges liaisons in Denver meet defendants as they are released from jail, Turner said. She declined to comment on Caudill’s case.

Caudill quickly went dark, court records show. He missed his next court appearance, and a judge issued a warrant for his arrest on Dec. 20.

The warrant in the misdemeanor cases was still active when Caudill allegedly stabbed four people along the 16th Street Mall 22 days later.

“It’s one of those hard heartbreaking realities of everyone giving their very best to a situation and it still had a horrible outcome,” Turner said.

No perfect solution

Critics focused on Caudill’s personal recognizance bonds in the wake of the attack, arguing he shouldn’t have been free with four pending misdemeanor cases. A heckler at Mayor Mike Johnston’s Jan. 13 press conference — where the mayor repeatedly said the 16th Street Mall was safe — blamed the stabbings on “crime-loving Democrats.”

But Caudil’s case shows a more complex reality, experts said.

“In a free society, you can’t preemptively lock someone up because of what they might do,” said Reiskin, of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition. “You just can’t.”

Judges must keep a long list of factors in mind when deciding whether to grant bail to defendants who are jailed but not convicted of any crimes. But the primary two concerns are whether defendants will return to court once released and whether they present a danger to others if released, said Stan Garnett, former Boulder County district attorney.

It’s a constant challenge for judges to walk that line, and sometimes they get it wrong, he said.

“We certainly haven’t gotten a perfect solution,” Garnett said. “If you have someone who is dangerous, you need to hold them in custody. Usually people being held on misdemeanors are not considered dangerous — and I think that’s what happened here.”

Still, he said, there were warning signs, like the 2021 threat with a knife. But Caudill’s mental illness also complicated the case.

The U.S. court system is not fundamentally designed to recognize the impact of mental illness on behavior, Atchity said.

“If you are stealing a purse or not having good civil impulse control and it is associated with your unmanaged schizophrenia, if you are hearing things or delusional or out of touch with reality… we should want to be, as a society, fully cognizant of what the circumstances of a person’s behavior are, and then take whatever steps are in our toolkit to address and correct those behaviors. And we just don’t,” Atchity said. “Someone is only being processed through a system based on a behavior: this is an assault. So we are processing this as an assault, and there is very little consideration of all of the elements of the person’s condition that may have made them assaultive.”

The state has one of the lowest-funded behavioral and mental health systems in the nation, Turner said. People often hit the criminal justice system after they are failed by the state’s behavioral health system, she added.

Earlier and better mental health care can prevent people with mental illness from being entangled in the justice system at all, Atchity said.

“As a rule, people don’t get better through their criminalization experience, they get worse,” he said. “Once people are institutionalized and criminalized in that way, their pathway degenerates in terms of their health conditions and ability to be integrated with the community successfully. And the evidence of that is just astronomical.

“So why do we keep repeating ourselves?”

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Judge John Zani said in Westminster Magistrates’ Court that it would now be up to the British Home Secretary to order Kimberlee Singler returned to the U.S.

Singler, 36, is accused of two counts of first-degree murder in the December 2023 shooting and stabbings of her 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son in Colorado Springs, and one count of attempted murder in the slashing of her 11-year-old daughter with a knife. She also faces three counts of child abuse and one count of assault.

Singler’s attorney had argued that sending her back to the U.S. would violate European human rights law, in part, because she faces a sentence of life in prison without parole in Colorado if convicted of first-degree murder. Such a sentence would be inhumane because it offers no prospect for release even if she is rehabilitated, attorney Edward Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said that despite an option for a Colorado governor to commute her sentence at some point, it was “political suicide” to do so.

Experts for the defense had originally said that a life sentence had never been commuted in Colorado. But prosecutors later found that Gov. John Hickenlooper in 2018 commuted life sentences of five men convicted of murder.

The defense countered that three of those sentences were not life without parole and two were for men who committed their crime between the ages of 18 and 21, which is sometimes considered a mitigating factor at sentencing because of their relative youth.

“This defendant, Kimberlee Singler, has no real prospect of release no matter what progress she makes” behind bars, Fitzgerald said.

Prosecutor Joel Smith said the judge only had to consider if there is a mechanism that could allow Singler to be freed someday.

“Prospect of release — that is not your concern,” Smith told the judge at a hearing in December.

Zani said in his ruling that there was an option in Colorado to release an inmate serving a life sentence.

“I am satisfied that the defendant has failed to vault the hurdle necessary in order to succeed in the challenges raised,” the judge said.

Fitzgerald said he planned to appeal.

Singler has denied that she harmed her children. She told police that her ex-husband had either carried out the killings or hired a hitman.

Singler had superficial knife wounds and was initially treated as a victim.

But that changed when her surviving daughter, who initially said she had been attacked by an intruder, told police her mother tried to kill her.

After her daughter changed her story, police sought to arrest Singler on Dec. 26 but she had fled. She was found four days later in London’s posh Chelsea neighborhood and arrested.

The girl told police that her mother gave the children milk with a powdery substance to drink and told them to close their eyes as she guided them into a sibling’s bedroom, prosecutors said.

Singler cut her neck and, as the girl begged her to stop, she slashed her again. The girl said her mother had a gun.

“The defendant told her that God was telling her to do it, and that the children’s father would take them away,” Smith said at a previous hearing.

Police found Aden Wentz, 7, and Elianna “Ellie” Wentz, 9, dead when they entered the Colorado Springs apartment on Dec. 19. They had been shot and stabbed.

Although Singler blamed her husband, authorities said he had a solid alibi backed up by GPS records that showed he had been driving a truck at the time of the killings.

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Re: “16th Street Mall: Man arrested in stabbings,” Jan. 14 news story

After the horrific stabbings of four people, two fatally, the mayor’s assurances of safety on the 16th Street Mall appear to be wishful thinking. Where is the backing for adequate police protection, i.e., funding for a viable police force? Why aren’t the District Attorney’s office and our courts more stringent with lasting penalties for crime? What happened to our right to feel and be safe walking Denver’s streets?

B.J. Stratman, Denver

Time for leaders to heed lessons from wildfires

The untamable fires swept into Los Angeles thanks to wealth-driven land use decisions and decades of disregard for the inevitability of climate change.

It’s past time to rethink land use planning — especially on the fringe or red zone, where the natural environment meets urban neighborhoods. A spark in the red zone often goes unnoticed until lives and properties are lost.

Colorado had an opportunity to learn the peril of ignoring wildfire risk with the Waldo Canyon Fire (Colorado Springs) and the more recent Marshall Fire (Superior). But did officials and planners learn?

Unfortunately, the potential for deadly wildfires is seldom among the considerations that Colorado cities and counties weigh in approving residential and commercial developments. A century ago Los Angeles could have required permanent development measures (such as public defensible space,) required certain fireproof building materials and so much more. In some cases, they did; the Getty Museum was spared, while homes burned all around it.

There’s still time for Colorado to avoid the heartbreak of Los Angeles, but only if the lives of future residents and business owners are put before the profit of developers.

Karen A. Wagner, Fort Collins

Legislator conversations are central to being productive

Re: “2025 legislative session will be the first where lawmakers can discuss possible legislation in private. Good!” Jan. 12 commentary

Thank you for publishing Krista Kafer. The vast majority of Coloradans, and Americans for that matter, are just to the right or just to the left of center. But our politics are way too often pushed from the edges, which brings us the extreme divides we have today.

When it comes to actually making sensible, middle-of-the-road policy, which is what most citizens want, having the ability to discuss ideas, practical implications and consequences without the press watching is crucial. It’s where we find those nearer-to-the-middle ideas.

Kafer’s broader point is that representative government, as designed by our Founders, requires private deliberation. With all its flaws, and there are many, the Constitutional Convention delegates in 1787 would never have written what they did if every Philadelphian had been in the room.

Having participated in literally hundreds of discussions about upcoming legislation before the bill was introduced, I can attest to how productive and consequential those conversations are. There is plenty of time for public input as a bill goes through the process of becoming law.

Lois Court, Denver

Editor’s note: Court is a former state senator from District 31.

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It has been only a few days since a detective called Carol Cortez to tell her that her son had been killed in a stabbing during the weekend, and Cortez said she thinks she’s still in shock.

Burkett was homeless and struggled with his mental health and drugs, and his mom last heard from him about a month ago, just before Christmas.

“We wanted to see what he was last doing on this Earth, what he might have been up to down here,” she said.

Cortez stood between Burkett’s father, Wayne, and sister, Maxine, near the mall’s intersection with Wazee Street, where Denver police say the 34-year-old was fatally stabbed Sunday night.

Elijah Caudill, 24, is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and assault in the stabbings that also killed 71-year-old flight attendant Celinda Levno and wounded two men.

“It’s terrifying to think about what happened to him and what he went through in his last moments,” Wayne Burkett said. “To come down here and be at the spot where it happened, it’s surreal.”

Nick Burkett was funny and obnoxious, hyper and outspoken. He loved art and music and didn’t care much what other people thought about him.

But he also struggled, and his family said they think he was targeted because drug misuse had made him frail.

Burkett’s death also echoes broader issues facing Denver, such as homelessness and public safety, his family said Friday.

“We really have to fight for our city to be safe,” Maxine Burkett said. “I want to bring my kids down here. I want other families to be able to bring their kids down here without feeling like something’s going to happen.”

Nick Burkett’s parents and sister said they hope to find more ways to help people who are homeless.

“I guarantee you every single person on these streets has someone who loves them and cares about them and wishes they could take the right steps,” Maxine Burkett said. “They’re not worthless.”

“He meant a lot to us,” Carol Cortez added. “He was important. He wasn’t just a throwaway person.”

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Elijah Caudill, 24, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the stabbing deaths of Celinda Levno, 71, and Nicholas Burkett, 34. Caudill also faces two charges each of attempted first-degree murder and first-degree assault for the two attacks that were not fatal.

“Our thoughts are with the victims of these terrible attacks and their families,” Denver District Attorney John Walsh said in a news release. “The Denver DA’s office will prosecute this case to the full extent of the law.”

Caudill is accused of carrying out the attacks Jan. 11 and 12, and was arrested Sunday evening, when Denver police spotted him running from the scene of the fourth stabbing carrying a large knife.

He is being held at Denver’s Downtown Detention Center without bond.

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Elijah Caudill, 24, is being held in Denver City Jail on suspicion of four felonies: two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder, county records show.

On Dec. 20, just three weeks before the 16th Street Mall stabbings, Caudill failed to appear in court for a review hearing in an unrelated criminal mischief case. Caudill had recently posted bond in the case on Nov. 11, court records show.

Criminal mischief is a misdemeanor charge involving the intentional destruction of someone else’s property, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office.

When Caudill didn’t show up, the judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest, court records show. The 24-year-old wasn’t caught until after four people were stabbed along Denver’s pedestrian mall on Saturday and Sunday.

Police believe Caudill carried out all four attacks and said the victims appear to be strangers to the 24-year-old. The motive for the attacks remains under investigation.

One of the victims killed was Celinda Levno, a 71-year-old, Phoenix-based American Airlines flight attendant who was in town for a layover, her union said. The second victim was identified by the city’s medical examiner as 34-year-old Nicholas Burkett.

Two other men were injured in the attacks, Denver police officials said.

Three stabbings, including one fatal attack, happened between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday, police said.

Investigators realized one person was carrying out the attacks after the third Saturday stabbing but were unable to find a suspect until late Sunday, when officers spotted Caudill running with a large knife after allegedly attacking the fourth victim around 8 p.m.

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Nicholas Burkett, 34, was pronounced dead from a stab wound at Denver Health at about 9:38 p.m. Sunday, Denver Office of the Medical Examiner officials said in a news release.

Burkett’s death was ruled a homicide.

He was the fourth person stabbed in what police believe was a random string of attacks along the pedestrian shopping street on Saturday and Sunday. Celinda Levno, a 71-year-old flight attendant based in Phoenix, was also killed in an attack Saturday while she was visiting the mall during a layover.

A 49-year-old man and a 62-year-old man were also injured in separate attacks.

Denver police arrested Elijah Caudill, 24, on suspicion of first-degree murder and attempted murder in the case.

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