Gebers gets life plus 342 years
The man was convicted in the death of a state trooper in a crash in May 2015.
Christopher Gebers is destined to spend the rest of his life locked up, Boulder County Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley said after a judge Tuesday sentenced the convicted felon to life in prison and an additional 342 years.
The 28-year-old man was found guilty earlier this year of killing Colorado State Patrol Cadet Taylor Thyfault and injuring Trooper Clinton Rushing in a crash near Longmont after a high-speed chase May 23, 2015.
“This was no accident,” Boulder District Judge Ingrid Bakke said in imposing her sentence. “It was a crash, meaning that decisions were made that resulted in tragedy, but not accidentally.”
Gebers’ first-degree murder conviction carried a mandatory life sentence and the additional years ensure he’ll stay in prison in the event the life sentence is reversed, Brackley said.
He argued Tuesday that Gebers made conscious choices to deal methamphetamine, modify his car with illegal blue headlights and improper brakes, elude at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour, hit the two law enforcement officers and then blame troopers after the crash.
As an example, he read a snippet of a July 2015 jail phone conversation Gebers had with his brother: “Bro, they’re trying to rail me over something that was mostly their fault.”
Public defender Jason Sharman said Gebers was never offered a choice of whether to go to trial. He said he is a product of a broken past, having spent most of his life already in custody as a foster child and a juvenile criminal.
“All he wanted was the opportunity to see the light of day again,”
Sharman said.
In shackles and jail clothes, Gebers stepped up to the lectern to apologize to the victims and say he wishes he could rewind time. He said he was sorry to his own family, including his 19-month-old daughter who was eight days old when he crashed.
“There’s nothing I can say that’s going to bring back Taylor,” he said. “There’s nothing I can say that’s going to make any of this go away or change it or anything. All I can say is I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t mean anything to you guys . ... If I could take it back, I would.”
Gebers waited two months to hear his sentence after the jury trial, when he could have been sentenced immediately, but prosecutors asked for more time so victims and families could prepare for what they’d say to the judge.
As Thyfault’s mother, Carole Adler, spoke of memories of her 21-year-old son, a slideshow of photos of him played on a screen in the courtroom. She told of how, even as a little boy, her son wanted to build his muscles and be the best in the Army.
She said he did build those muscles and he did serve his country, but then decided to become a law enforcement officer. She said she remembers he jumped on her bed with excitement when he received his acceptance letter to the CSP academy.
But her voice grew quiet when she said she didn’t get to see him graduate.
“What’s also been taken away is my identity, that day, as a mom,” she said. “I will forever be his mom. But do you know how hard it is when you don’t get to see your child every day?”
The crash last year wasn’t Gebers’ first run-in with the law.
Bakke heard from prosecutors’ witnesses before the sentencing portion that Gebers was a habitual offender, having two prior drug convictions in 2006 in Adams County for possessing meth and in 2013 in Adams County for distributing meth.