The district attorney’s office requested a stay after filing a petition to the Colorado Supreme Court.
Prosecutors in June sought the removal of Judge Jeff Herron, based on his past attorney-client relationship with a witness, which was denied Aug. 7. They filed with the high court for a review of that decision, but that request was recently turned down without comment.
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Lopez was indicted in 2006 on allegations of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Irene Trujillo. Trujillo’s body was discovered on her business property a few months after she was reported missing in 2003. Police said Lopez was the last person to see her alive.
According to court documents, testimony given to the grand jury indicated Trujillo, Lopez’s former employer, bought bullets for Lopez to settle a debt ” one of which was later used to kill her. Lopez’s defense has argued the theory doesn’t make sense and the witness who provided the information contradicted herself several times.
Public defender Harvey Palefsky also said in motions to the court that Lopez intends to raise as a defense the possibility that other people had motive to kill Trujillo. Defense motions state Trujillo knew of illegal drug activity and her knowledge angered the people allegedly involved.
No one other than Lopez has been charged in the murder. Lopez on Monday asked for the case to be dismissed on grounds the DA’s office hadn’t complied with court orders. In June, Montgomery moved to disqualify Herron from the case, because Herron had represented a witness. Montgomery said the woman’s interaction with Lopez occurred at the same time she had Herron as an attorney.
Lopez filed a motion seeking the woman’s pre-sentence investigation reports in the cases in which Herron had represented her. In February, Herron recused himself from deciding that particular motion, which was reassigned to another judge.
The witness in question is “critical in the People’s case,” Montgomery’s motion read. “She will be subject to a vigorous cross-examination which will require numerous rulings on the part of Judge Herron.”
He argued Herron’s recusal from deciding Lopez’s February motion “effectively disqualified him from the entire case. ... A judge cannot part and parcel out a case, causing some issues to be heard by other judges.”
Herron rejected the legal argument presented and said the motion wasn’t supported by affidavits of at least two witnesses not related to the defendant.
Herron said requests for substitution of judges have to be filed within 10 days after a case is assigned to a judge. When information comes to light after that timeframe, the application for substitution should be made as soon as possible.
“No explanation, alleging good cause, has been offered by the People for the four-plus month delay.”
He also said mere allegations of opinions or conclusions were not sufficient proof of prejudice, and he’d never recused himself from the whole case.
Lopez’s trial is set for December.
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Lopez seeks dismissal
MONTROSE ” Accusing the prosecution of failing to comply with court orders concerning evidence, Lionel Lopez is asking for dismissal of murder charges against him.
Lopez was indicted in 2006 for the 2003 murder of Montrose businesswoman Irene Trujillo, who was found shot to death in a makeshift grave at her family’s stone quarry a few months after being reported missing.
In a motion filed Monday, Lopez, through his attorney, accused the district attorney’s office of unwillingness to comply with a court order regarding evidence related to the state’s expert witnesses.
The motion asked for dismissal, reduction of charges or for the witnesses to be precluded from trial. Alternatively, “at a minimum,” he wants an order requiring the DA to immediately comply with previous court orders concerning the witnesses.
The DA’s office hadn’t filed a response to the motion Wednesday. Lopez has been set for trial on first-degree murder charges in December.
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