Author: Lance Benzel
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A Bond villain, an inheritance and a baseball bat: Police detail mother-son conspiracy in beating death
A Colorado Springs man who legally adopted the name of a James Bond villain fatally beat his 83-year-old father with a baseball bat and tried to pin it on his ailing mother, police alleged in court Friday. Jean-Joseph Danger Le Chiffre — formerly known as Patrick Joseph Sandoval — appeared for a half-day hearing in 4th Judicial…
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Colorado Springs man gets life in prison for double-killing, follows with profanity-laced tirade
A jury Friday convicted a Colorado Springs man in a 2018 double-slaying in which two people were shot in the head and left in a burning car in a scheme to steal up to a pound of marijuana. The panel found Nashid Rayon Rivers guilty of multiple counts of first-degree murder in the drug-heist killings…
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Man gets max in 1988 rape and murder that haunted Colorado Springs
A man who pleaded guilty in the 1988 rape and murder of a woman in an Old Colorado City neighborhood alley when he was 15 was sentenced Wednesday to 60 years in prison. James A. Papol, 48, received the maximum penalty under a plea bargain in the slaying of 24-year-old Mary Lynn Vialpando, which remained…
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Jury begins deliberating in 2018 double-killing over pot
A Colorado Springs man’s text message announcing he was “about to dome” someone could decide if he’s convicted in a 2018 double-homicide in which a man and a woman were shot in the head before their bodies were set on fire. An El Paso County jury will begin deliberations Wednesday at the trial of 21-year-old…
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Colorado Springs man gets prison in crash that killed Air Force vet
A 21-year-old Colorado Springs man who was speeding nearly 40 miles over the limit when he caused the death of a retired Air Force officer in Briargate was sentenced to prison Monday. Eric Sartuche-Dean was sentenced to six years in the Colorado Department of Corrections, the maximum he had faced after pleading guilty to vehicular…
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Stepmom in Gannon Stauch case drops bid to represent self
The stepmother accused of killing 11-year-old Gannon Stauch has abandoned her bid to represent herself in court and will get court-appointed lawyers, according to documents made public Monday. Fourth Judicial District Judge Gregory Werner on Friday ordered that Letecia Stauch will be represented by the same team of public defenders that she fired in late…
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Fountain man gets life in prison after woman’s ‘barbaric, explosive’ beating death
A Fountain man was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday minutes after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the August 2019 beating death of the mother of his two children. Donnell Bradley, 33, assaulted girlfriend Jeanette Darlene Ellingson, 29, until her skull, ribs and arms were fractured and blood was spattered on the…
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Pilot dies in plane crash in southwestern Jefferson County
A pilot was killed Saturday night when his plane went down in the remote Lost Creek Wilderness in southwestern Jefferson County, authorities said. “It is with heavy hearts that we announce the single occupant, an adult male, of the crashed plane was found deceased on scene,” the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet…
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Forecast calls for high fire danger in El Paso County, Southern Colorado ahead of wintry turn
Critical fire danger is predicted in El Paso County and much of southern Colorado on Monday amid high temperatures and strong winds. A National Weather Service red flag warning is in effect from noon to 8 p.m. along the Interstate 25 corridor from Colorado Springs to New Mexico. The San Luis Valley, eastern Fremont…
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Modern police strategy: Confront the active shooter
In moving to confront the gunman storming a Boulder King Soopers, Officer Eric Talley appears to have acted on the latest guidance for how police respond to shooting sprees: to put innocent lives above their own. Talley, who was among 10 people killed in Colorado’s latest mass shooting, placed himself in danger at a time…