GUILTY CO - Bruce, 27, Debra, 26, & Melissa Bennett, 7, murdered, Aurora, 16 Jan 1984 *inmate arrest 2019*

[faithx]

@Niner

Kevin Vaughan @writerkev

BREAKING: Jefferson County jury convicts Alex Christopher Ewing on all counts in Jan. 10, 1984, murder of Patricia Smith, who was bludgeoned with an auto-body hammer. #9NEWS @9WantsToKnow

12:50 PM · Apr 7, 2022

Sentencing for Alex Ewing in the 1984 murder of Patricia Smith is set for April 12 at 10a.m. #9NEWS @9WantsToKnow

12:58 PM · Apr 7, 2022

 

[PrairieWind]

Thank goodness and good riddance. I remember the Bennett murders when I was just a kid. Terrifying. You have to wonder how many other people he killed or assaulted over the years that we don't know about.

 

[Niner]

@Niner

Kevin Vaughan @writerkev

BREAKING: Jefferson County jury convicts Alex Christopher Ewing on all counts in Jan. 10, 1984, murder of Patricia Smith, who was bludgeoned with an auto-body hammer. #9NEWS @9WantsToKnow

12:50 PM · Apr 7, 2022

Sentencing for Alex Ewing in the 1984 murder of Patricia Smith is set for April 12 at 10a.m. #9NEWS @9WantsToKnow

12:58 PM · Apr 7, 2022

Oh good - finally!! and thanks for the info!

 

[Lonicera]

To me it seems just random - at least we haven't heard anything about him "stalking" his victims.

Thanks , Niner.

 

[Niner]

Tuesday, April 12th:
*Sentencing Hearing (Jefferson Co) (@ 10am MT) – CO – Patricia Louis Smith (50) (Jan. 10, 1984, Lakewood) - *Alexander Christopher Ewing (25 @ time of crime/58/now 62) charged (8/10/18) & arraigned (2/26/21) with 4 counts of 1st degree murder & 2 counts of committing a crime of violence. Plead not guilty. $1M bond.
DNA genetic profile match in CODIS. Ewing is serving an 8 to 40 year sentence in Nevada. Extradited on 2/28/20.
Trial set to begin on 10/15/21 with jury selection & trial began on 10/18/21 thru 11/15/21 & ended with a mistrial.
New trial began on 3/25/22 with jury selection & trial ended 4/7/22 with a verdict of guilty on all counts.
Court hearings from 10/2/18 thru 10/12/21 & Jury selection 10/15/21 & Trial (Day 1-2) 10/18/21 to 10/19/21 & court hearings from 10/20/21 to 3/3/22 & Jury selection days 1-2 (3/25 to 3/29/22) & trial days 1-4 (3/30 to 4/4/22) reference post #374 here:
GUILTY - CO - Bruce, 27, Debra, 26, & Melissa Bennett, 7, murdered, Aurora, 16 Jan 1984 *inmate arrest 2019*
4/5/22 Tuesday, Trial Day 5: No info available. Prosecutors rested their case. And as did defense. Trial continues 4/6/22.
4/6/22 Wednesday, Trial Day 6/Jury Deliberations Day 1: The prosecution & defense presented their closing arguments on Wednesday afternoon. A verdict is expected as soon as Thursday. Trial continues with jury deliberations on 4/7/22.
4/7/22 Thursday, Trial Day 7/Jury Deliberations Day 2: Jefferson County jury finds Ewing guilty on all counts in Jan. 10, 1984 murder of Patricia Smith. Sentencing is set for 4/12/22 at 10am.
CO – Bruce (27) & Debra (26) Bennett & daughter Melissa (7) (Jan. 16, 1984, Aurora) – Trial was from 7/23/21 to 8/6/21. Found guilty of all counts. Sentenced on 8/17/21 to 3 life sentences.

 

[Niner]

"Hammer Killer" locked away for another life sentence for Patricia Smith murder

April 12, 2022
Patricia Smith’s family members rarely referred to her killer by name at his sentencing hearing Tuesday, instead choosing to call the murderer a “vile, vicious, evil monster” and “boogeyman.”

“It was not a human that took my mother’s life,” Chery Lettin said. “It was an evil monster who does not deserve to walk this Earth.”

Lettin was joined by three other family members in addressing First Judicial District Judge Tamara Russell during the sentencing of Alex Ewing, convicted last week of first-degree murder and two counts of felony murder in the 1984 killing of 50-year-old Smith at her Lakewood home during a spree of Denver-area violence attributed to the so-called “Hammer Killer.”
[.....]
At the conclusion of the hearing, Russell sentenced Ewing, 61, to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years — though that sentence will be served consecutively to the three life sentences handed down by an Arapahoe County judge last year for the murders of three members of the Bennett family in Aurora during that same string of attacks.

more in article.

 

[Lonicera]

What do we know about this murderer’s family and childhood? Does he have brothers or sisters? Does he have mental disorders? Does he have below average cognitive abilities?

 

[faithx]

Hello , do we now know how Ewing chose his victims? Had he spotted them before? Or was he acting totally at random?

An FBI profiler theorized Ewing acted at random by prowling neighborhoods and simply trying door knobs to see if they were unlocked.

What do we know about this murderer’s family and childhood? Does he have brothers or sisters? Does he have mental disorders? Does he have below average cognitive abilities?

One of his attorneys said he "suffered horribly as a child" yesterday at the sentencing hearing, but it wasn't specified what was meant by that. He is the 3rd of 4 children, with 1 brother and 2 sisters. I don't know for sure but I feel like if he did have mental disorders and/or below average cognitive abilities, it would have been brought up by the defense at sentencing.

According to court documents obtained by 9News, he was kicked out of school after the 11th grade for "drinking and getting loaded a lot." After he was arrested for burglary, he was detained for two months at the juvenile facility in Sacramento before going into a foster home for two weeks.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Patricia Smith murder: Alex Ewing sentenced to life
But Jefferson County District Judge Tamara Russell stacked that sentence on top of back-to-back-to-back life terms Ewing is already serving after his conviction last year in the murders of Bruce and Debra Bennett and their 7-year-old daughter Melissa.

 

[Lonicera]

An FBI profiler theorized Ewing acted at random by prowling neighborhoods and simply trying door knobs to see if they were unlocked.

One of his attorneys said he "suffered horribly as a child" yesterday at the sentencing hearing, but it wasn't specified what was meant by that. He is the 3rd of 4 children, with 1 brother and 2 sisters. I don't know for sure but I feel like if he did have mental disorders and/or below average cognitive abilities, it would have been brought up by the defense at sentencing.

According to court documents obtained by 9News, he was kicked out of school after the 11th grade for "drinking and getting loaded a lot." After he was arrested for burglary, he was detained for two months at the juvenile facility in Sacramento before going into a foster home for two weeks.

Thanks faithx for this valuable information.

This killer had a very heavy history of delinquency, various forms of violence: practically from childhood, his destiny was written. It reminds me of what I read about it in the books of Douglas and Ressler.

I acknowledge that in his case I had thought of mental problems or at least
below average cognitive abilities
so much that his crimes are brutal , worthy of a disorganized killer . In a photo of the trial, he seemed to smile or sneer ...
The Denverpost article is absolutely exciting. Thank you again.

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Woman who watched her family get murdered speaks out about attack

Vanessa Bennett, now 42, witnessed the horrifying deaths of her parents and sister in 1984, when a man named named Alex Ewing, broke into their Colorado home and bludgeoned them with a hammer.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[imstilla.grandma]