Victim in notorious 2003 Denver murder case dies from wounds 11 years later

When Douglas Kubo died last month, Denver’s medical examiner listed his death as a 2015 homicide.

Kubo’s cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound with complications. But the wound was suffered 11½ years ago.

Now, prosecutors and police must decide whether to bring a new murder charge against the person who shot Kubo in an August 2003 robbery at a duplex in northeast Denver.

Kubo and five other people were bound with duct tape and shot. Four people were killed.

The case became notorious because of the large number of victims, the execution-style shootings and the fact that a father and son had committed the crimes.

Kubo and another person survived.

DATA: Learn more about homicides in Denver in 2015

Kubo was shot in the back of the neck, and the bullet fractured two vertebrae and caused an aneurism, his autopsy report said. Kubo spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Most recently, he lived in a nursing home in Thornton.

The decision on whether to prosecute Kubo’s shooter on another murder charge won’t come fast or easy, said Lynn Kimbrough, a spokesman for District Attorney Mitch Morrissey’s office.

First, prosecutors must decide whether the law would allow them to seek a new charge because Edward Herrera, 62, already is serving life without parole after being convicted of four counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder in the case, she said.

Herrera’s son, Michael Sandoval, who had pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery, recently was released on parole.

If Colorado statutes allowed another charge, attorneys still would have to consider whether they would be able to put together a case all these years later. They also would consult the victim’s family, she said.

Steven Castro, a supervisor at the medical examiner’s office, said Kubo’s death was ruled a homicide because doctors concluded that he died a premature death because of complications from the gunshot.

Medical examiners reached the same conclusion in the death of 57-year-old Christopher Crespin, who died in April from complications he suffered in a March 1975 shooting.

Crespin, then 17, was playing with a gun with his best friend near his home on the corner of West Seventh Avenue and Inca Street. The two thought the gun was unloaded, but when one pulled the slide, it fired a shot, the autopsy report said.

It is unclear whether the friend was charged in the shooting.

The incident report and early medical records have been destroyed, the autopsy report said.

Crespin spent his remaining years paralyzed and had other ongoing health problems because of the injury.

His name also appears on the 2015 homicide list at the medical examiner’s office.

Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Noelle_Phillips