https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/death_penalty_publication_2202017.pdf
Linking current Colorado law re: the death penalty.
DA May spent some time during the pc yesterday discussing the need for a jury to find at least 1 of Colorado's identified "Aggravating Factors" in order to impose the death penalty.
Page 13 of the linked doc lists the "Aggravated Factors" that make a Felony 1 case eligible for the DP.
It would take a lot of work and creative argument for DA May to make the case for the death penalty based on my reading of this list.
I see two potential qualifying factors, but the case for both is tenuous at best:
- the offense was committed for pecuniary gain
- the defendant committed the offense in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner
I've always believed that PF's primary motive for killing KB was a financial one.
PF didn't want to pay KB child support. Didn't want to cover any of KB's other expenses r/t the raising of Baby K, either. I think in PF's mind, if he had full "custody," i.e., if he handed Baby K off to Ma F to raise at the ranch, he wouldn't have to pay KB anything at all.
That's why he wanted custody. Not because he's some loving, devoted father. He's not.
A loving, devoted dad doesn't beat their baby's mommy to death with a baseball bat.
If KK had a will leaving anything to PF, that would bolster the argument for the murder having been committed for pecuniary gain, but I don't believe KK did any such thing.
In fact, I'll be shocked if she did.
Regardless, an argument
can be made that PF murdered KB for pecuniary gain.
The second factor is particularly difficult to establish since this is a no body case.
The jury would have to believe that PF killed the mother of his child by bludgeoning her with a baseball bat on the strength of the blood evidence in the townhome and KK's testimony.
I don't see any other aggravating factors that would even remotely apply here in KB's case.
Does anyone else see something I've missed, though?
I don't know what DA May's personal feelings about the death penalty are, but I'm hoping he takes a good, hard, long look at those aggravating factors.
If DA May can make the case in his own mind for at least one of those factors being present, then I would love to see him make that case in front of the jury at trial.
I see a pathway to the capital murder case. It's narrow, and tough to navigate.
But it exists.
JMO.