Tom Clements murder case active but still unsolved
The murder of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements remains unsolved nearly four years after he was shot to death, but investigators say the case is still open.
El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder told reporters last year that the Clements investigation was coming to a conclusion, but he backtracked on that after other law enforcement agencies expressed concerns.
“The case is still open. We follow up on leads as we get them,” Elder’s spokeswoman Jacqueline Kirby said Monday.
Elder told a group of journalists on Aug. 3: “I’m confident we will come to a conclusion soon.”
Friday marks the fourth anniversary of the March 17, 2013, murder by parolee Evan Ebel of 27-year-old Commerce City father Nathan Leon. Ebel used Leon’s pizza uniform as a disguise to kill Clements at his Monument home two days later. Authorities investigated the possibility that Ebel was acting on orders from a white supremacist prison gang, the 211 Crew.
Elder has previously said “Evan Ebel stood on the doorstep and killed Tom Clements alone,” and added that making the leap that there was a conspiracy is not supported by evidence.
Elder’s comments have been in contrast to statements by other law enforcement officials and his predecessors in the sheriff ’s office.
The Denver Post reported in May 2016 that Texas Rangers had named possible co-conspirators in Clements’ murder. The report also tied numerous members of the 211 Crew by text messages and phone records to the case, and indicated DNA from a third murder victim from Colorado Springs was found on a pipe bomb taken from Ebel’s car trunk. Ebel was killed in a shootout with Texas lawmen on March 21, 2013.
The Rangers’ investigation concluded that the hierarchy of the 211 Crew ordered Ebel to kill Clements. The Texas Rangers, the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI linked hundreds of phone calls between Ebel and 211 Crew leaders in the days before and after the killings. Several members of the 211 Crew subsequently were incarcerated on parole violations for being in contact with Ebel in the days before and after the murder.
Two weeks after the newspaper report, Elder announced that he was in the process of closing the Clements investigation. Gov. John Hickenlooper declared shortly afterward that he and other state investigators had met with Elder and that for the time being the investigation was going forward.
Officials from two or three agencies expressed concern about Elder’s decision to close the murder investigation.
On Monday, Kirby said that is why the murder investigation remains open.