Author: Lance Benzel
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Slaying of 13-year-old Dylan Redwine of Monument gets focus at father’s Durango trial
Opening statements are set for Monday afternoon at the trial of a southern Colorado father accused of killing and dismembering 13-year-old Dylan Redwine of Monument. Mark Allen Redwine, 59, has long protested his innocence in the death of Dylan, who vanished Nov. 19, 2012, while visiting his father near Durango at a time of discord…
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Colorado Springs man guilty of second-degree murder in wife’s 2019 strangulation
A jury Thursday convicted a Colorado Springs dump truck driver of second-degree murder in his wife’s 2019 strangulation death. The verdict spared Fredrick Stanley Young, 44, a first-degree murder conviction — and a mandatory life sentence in prison — in the death of Jennifer Young, 39, who asphyxiated when her bodybuilder husband put her in a chokehold…
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Jury acquits BLM protester in Colorado Springs
A 25-year-old Black Lives Matter protester and former soldier was acquitted this week of all counts stemming from his July arrest outside Colorado Springs City Hall. An El Paso County Court jury on Wednesday deliberated less than 30 minutes before finding Demarick Webb-Rivera not guilty of two misdemeanor counts of obstructing the road during a…
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‘Homicide Hunter’ star Joe Kenda testifies at Colorado Springs murder trial
Reality-television star and former police detective Joe Kenda was called to the witness stand Wednesday in a Colorado Springs courtroom to revisit his role investigating a 1987 rape and killing that went unsolved for more than three decades. The gravelly voiced star of Investigation Discovery’s “Homicide Hunter” testified for roughly 75 minutes at the trial…
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Wife was ‘snoring’ after deadly chokehold, Colorado Springs man testifies
A Colorado Springs man on trial for first-degree murder took the stand Tuesday and tearfully recounted finding his wife lifeless on the kitchen floor hours after the couple drunkenly quarreled in their northeast side home. Even as Fredrick Stanley Young Jr., 44, wiped at tears in court, a prosecutor assailed his claim that he accidentally…
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Trial date set in killings of Colorado Springs woman, her mother
A Colorado Springs man accused of barging into his estranged wife’s townhouse and fatally shooting her after stabbing her mother to death is set to face a jury in November. A judge Monday scheduled a two-week trial beginning Nov. 30 for Timothy Ray Scott Jr., who faces multiple counts of first-degree murder in the March…
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DA Michael Allen promotes woman after 3 top female prosecutors resign
A veteran female prosecutor who was previously passed over for promotion in favor of a less experienced male counterpart has been elevated. Jennifer Viehman, whose 17-year tenure at the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office has included roles in the successful prosecutions of Teller County fiancée-killer Patrick Frazee and a massive child-molestation case against former Colorado…
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Longtime El Paso County prosecutor resigns after demotion
A veteran El Paso County prosecutor who was demoted by newly elected 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen has resigned, joining two other longtime female prosecutors in leaving the office. Donna Billek, a top trial attorney who handled numerous complex and high-profile cases during a 22-year tenure in Colorado Springs, officially leaves Monday, the office…
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Father-son securities traders in Colorado Springs bilked clients for $10M in losses: SEC
The father-and-son operators of a Colorado Springs investment firm and their partner were hit with civil securities fraud charges this week, accused of steering investors toward losses of $10 million in five years while the firm banked fees and commissions. Charged in what authorities portrayed as an evolving scheme with Ponzi-like elements were Randy R.…
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Record outbreak at El Paso County jail spawns legal settlement
The El Paso County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday agreed to pay $65,000 to settle a federal class-action lawsuit alleging that Sheriff Bill Elder’s “disordered, mismanaged” policies led to last fall’s record COVID-19 outbreak at the jail. The money will cover attorneys’ fees for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, which filed suit in…