GOLDEN — Attorneys for Austin Sigg successfully argued on Tuesday that before he can enter a plea, they need more time to plow through “massive” evidence compiled during the investigation of last fall’s kidnapping and murder of 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway.
But Jefferson County District Court Judge Stephen Munsinger granted Sigg’s defense team only 30 additional days to enter a plea, not the two months they had sought. The judge set a new arraignment date of April 12.
Sigg, who turned 18 in jail, is charged with 18 counts related to Jessica’s death, as well as an attack on a jogger at Ketner Lake over Memorial Day weekend last year. Four of those counts carry mandatory life sentences.
Clean-shaven, wearing glasses and an orange jail jumpsuit, Sigg briefly faced his mother and smiled at her before taking a seat at the defense table. Mindy Sigg, surrounded by members of her family — all wearing purple, Jessica Ridgeway’s favorite color — smiled back at her son.
Members of Jessica Ridgeway’s family, also all in purple, sat on the other side of the courtroom.
In making the defense team’s case for more time, attorney Katherine Spengler told the judge there were 50,000 pages of discovery, 1,800 pieces of physical evidence and 2,500 photographs. Spengler also said the public defender’s office needs new software to access some of the computer evidence.
“A race to justice really is no justice at all,” she said.
The defense also requested a private meeting with the judge, without prosecutors present. They alluded to possible evidence they wanted to discuss but didn’t want prosecutors to be aware of. Munsinger instructed them to file a written request for that conference.
The judge also reminded the defense attorneys they were only being asked to enter a plea at Tuesday’s hearing. “You’ve got three choices, guilty, not guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity,” he said. He added that they would likely be able to amend a plea if necessary.
At a Feb. 22 preliminary hearing, it was revealed that, on Oct. 19, more than two weeks after Jessica disappeared, one of Sigg’s neighbors gave police the tip they needed to solve the case.
On that day, two FBI agents went to Sigg’s home in Arvada, and he submitted his DNA.
During the hearing, a tape was played of a call Mindy Sigg, made to police on Oct. 23.
“My son wants to turn himself in for the Jessica Ridgeway murder. He just confessed to killing her,” Mindy Sigg tells a dispatcher on the tape.
Westminster Police Detective Albert Stutson testified that Sigg, who was 17 at the time, got on the phone after his mother called to report him and said, “I murdered Jessica Ridgeway. I have proof that I did it. You should send a squad car down here. I’ll answer all the questions. I won’t resist.”
Another detective testified that Mindy Sigg related that her son had told her, “I’m a monster.”
