CU student not guilty of murder in stabbing

boulder» Twelve Boulder County jurors were asked to determine whether the fatal stabbing of University of Colorado student Sean Hudson by another student during a brawl in downtown Boulder in December was self-defense or murder.

After a week of testimony and just three hours of deliberation, they came to the same conclusion as Ian Scheuermann’s attorneys: self-defense.

Scheuermann, 23, was found not guilty of seconddegree murder Friday.

He also was acquitted of first-degree assault and one count of felony menacing, a Ian Scheuermann, hugging attorney Lisa Wayne after the verdict, was found not guilty of murder in the death of Sean Hudson. Cliff Grassmick, Daily Camera charge that prosecutors said stemmed from Scheuermann allegedly threatening Hudson’s friend Jeremy Zellers with a knife.

Scheuermann was stoic as Boulder District Judge Ingrid Bakke read the verdict but became emotional as he turned around and received hugs from defense attorney Lisa Wayne and his family.

“The jury said it all,” Wayne said after the verdict was read.

It was the opposite across the courtroom, as emotional friends and family of Hudson filed out.

“Under our system of justice, the community, through the jury system, always has the last word,” District Attorney Stan Garnett said. “Self-defense cases, based as they are on opinions of reasonable force, are especially appropriate for the collective judgment of a jury. Justice is done any time a jury returns a verdict, and we thank the members of this jury for their hard work.

“At the same time, we are disappointed with the verdict and know how difficult this verdict is to bear for the family of Sean Hudson, with whom we will continue to work and provide support.”

One juror, who asked not to be named, said the only aspect of the self-defense case the jury truly needed to ponder was the amount of force used as Hudson was stabbed six times, including in the heart and the neck.

“That was the crux of the conversation,” the juror said. “We decided that, given the circumstances, even though in retrospect it was possibly excessive, there was no way we could definitely prove that it was excessive at the time.”

The jury was given the option of considering lesser charges of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide but did not find Scheuermann guilty of either of those.

Added the juror: “We felt that if, at any point, the victim stopped, so would have Ian.”

The jury’s reasoning was in line with Wayne’s closing arguments Friday morning, in which she asked the jurors to put themselves in Scheuermann’s position at the time, rather than analyzing the fight blow by blow with the benefit of “sterility and hindsight.”