GOLDEN —More than a year before Jessica Ridgeway disappeared, the teenager accused of kidnapping and strangling the 10-year-old girl started searching for violent photographs and videos of children being raped, tortured and dismembered, prosecutors say.
The disturbing allegation was one of several revealed during the second of two motions hearings in the case against Austin Sigg. Attorneys presented arguments for more than 20 motions in Jefferson County District court Thursday and Friday, creating an early preview of the grim details and testimony that may form the basis of arguments during September’s trial.
Sigg, who turned 18 in jail, is charged with 18 counts in the kidnapping, killing and dismemberment of Jessica in October and an attack on a female jogger at Ketner Lake on Memorial Day weekend last year. Sigg was arrested the night of Oct. 23, after his mother, Mindy, called and told a dispatchers that her son killed Jessica.
Sigg has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
On Friday, prosecutors presented evidence they collected from a computer at Austin Sigg’s home, where they say the teenager repeatedly searched for and accessed graphic websites — including child pornography — for more than a year. Prosecutors argued that Sigg’s habit of viewing the violent photos and videos show an escalating motive for his alleged attacks on the jogger and Jessica’s death.
Sigg has not been charged specifically for possessing child porn, but he faces three charges of sexual exploitation connected to the materials recovered from a computer at his home.
Sigg’s attorneys called the evidence inflammatory and said Sigg never spoke of a plan or discussed motivation to his friends and family.
“The information is simply irrelevant,” defense attorney Katherine Spengler said. “The defendant’s graphic search terms are not admissions. They are not statements.”
District Court Chief Judge Stephen Munsinger granted prosecutors’ requests to introduce the information, but the admission of the graphic evidence later served as the basis for Spengler’s argument to separate the 18 charges against Sigg into three different trials.
Spengler asked Munsinger to set two separate trials for the charges connected to the attack on the jogger and the three sexual exploitation charges. She argued that a jury would be unfairly influenced by the graphic images when they considered the two charges connected to the attack at Ketner Lake.
Munsinger ruled that the two charges connected to the attack — attempted kidnapping and a violent crime involving a weapon — will go forward as a separate trial. Evidence from that case may be used in the trial for Jessica’s death.
Earlier Friday, Munsinger denied a motion from Sigg’s attorneys that would have withheld the female jogger’s identification of him.
The female jogger, who has not been publicly identified, testified that she had selected Sigg’s photo from an array of six around 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 24, before police released it to the media later that afternoon. She also said she had not selected a suspect in a previous photo lineup.
Sigg was not in the courtroom for her testimony because her identification of him was at issue. The defense had argued that the photo lineup was suggestive because Sigg’s photo used different lighting and he was one of only two men wearing a striped shirt.
Munsinger allowed the photo identification.
Defense attorneys also challenged the qualifications of the sexual assault nurse who examined Jessica’s remains. Attorneys will argue that matter during a hearing in August.
Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794, jsteffen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jsteffendp
