A Denver jury begins hearing testimony Tuesday on whether Dexter Lewis lives or dies, as the shadow of the Aurora theater shooting trial looms over the death penalty issue in Colorado.
Minutes after the jury convicted Lewis of the grisly stabbing deaths of five people inside a Denver bar in 2012, Judge John Madden IV brought up the Aurora verdict.
In his advisements before releasing the jury for the day, Madden referred to “another prominent case in our state” and told the panel, “That case doesn’t have anything to do with this case.”
It was an emotional morning for victims’ families, who cried Monday as the guilty counts piled up. One woman covered her eyes with her hands as she sobbed. A man hung his head as he gripped the wooden bench where he sat.
Lewis, meanwhile, remained stoic, taking a sip of water as the judge read each of the victims’ names.
The victims in the attack inside Fero’s Bar & Grill were Young Fero, 63; Daria Pohl, 21; Kellene Fallon, 44; Ross Richter, 29; and Tereasa Beesley, 45.
The emotional ordeal is not over for the families, the defendant or the attorneys as the death penalty phase begins. It could last more than two weeks.
As much as Madden will steer jurors’ minds away from the Aurora theater shooting trial, experts say it will be hard to ignore the sentence of life in prison without parole for James Holmes, who killed 12 and wounded 70 others.
“The Aurora theater verdict shouldn’t have anything to do with this verdict, but there’s a possibility it might,” said Craig Silverman, a former Denver prosecutor who helped convince the last Denver jury to impose a death penalty sentence.
The prosecutors also are challenged by Denver’s historical reluctance to execute a criminal. The last time a defendant was sentenced to death in Denver was in 1986.
Lewis was accused of going to Fero’s
in the early hours of Oct. 17, 2012, with three others intending to rob it.
Lewis allegedly became enraged and stabbed to death the bar’s owner and four patrons. The bar was then set fire with the victims inside.
One of the men who went with Lewis to the bar, Demarea Harris, was secretly an informant for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives at the time and reported the crime to his handlers hours later. He was never charged.
The other two men, brothers Joseph and Lynell Hill, pleaded guilty to murder charges and received lengthy prison sentences.
The brothers’ plea deals could give the jury pause, Silverman said.
Prosecutors have asserted that Lewis alone stabbed the victims, but a guilty verdict doesn’t mean the jury agrees, he said.
“After all, those two brothers were guilty of first-degree murder as well,” Silverman said.
Some sitting on the Lewis jury may take note that his death toll was less than half of that from the Aurora shooting, experts said.
“I believe that there are going to be jurors who scratch their heads and say, ‘Y’know, if James Holmes gets life, who ever gets death?’ ” said David Lane, a Denver defense attorney. “It’s certainly not going to hurt Dexter Lewis’ chances.”
The Arapahoe County jury also could embolden any Denver jurors who doubt the death penalty is appropriate. In the theater shooting case, one juror reportedly opposed giving a death sentence to a person suffering from a mental illness.
The Aurora verdict potentially raises another controversial question. James Holmes, the Aurora gunman, is white. Lewis, like the three men currently on death row in Colorado, is black.
“When you look, statistically, at death row inmates, they are disproportionately black,” said Christopher Decker, president of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar. “I think there would definitely be concerns if a death sentence is handed down in this case.”
Prosecutors will paint a picture of terror inside the bar as they try to get the jurors to consider what is was like for the bar’s owner, Young Fero, as she watched the defendant stab her customers then come for her, Silverman said.
“You’ve got to get people angry at the defendant for them to sentence him to death,” Silverman said. “The facts of this case do make a normal person angry.”
“It’s a horror movie that happened in that establishment,” he said.
Matthew Nussbaum: 303-954-1666, mnussbaum@denverpost.com or twitter.com/MatthewNussbaum
