Suspect was out of jail despite earlier charge
Prosecutors say Caleb “CJ” Schroeder should not have been released from the Arapahoe County Jail four days before he allegedly stabbed a security guard to death. Schroeder was set to be released after being sentenced to probation, but prosecutors filed a new charge that day and thought he’d be held until a judge set bail.
Deputies say they had to release Schroeder because a judge hadn’t signed an arrest warrant on that new charge that would have kept him behind bars. That warrant was signed two days after Schroeder was released.
Around 5 a.m. Friday, Schroeder allegedly fatally stabbed 39-year-old Scott Tice, a security guard at the Denver Performing Arts Complex garage, in the neck with a pocket knife.
He was arrested several hours later after police used the security officer’s cellphone to track him. Schroeder is being held in the Denver city jail for investigation of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery, according to Denver police.
Assistant District Attorney Matt Maillaro and Senior Chief Rich Orman, top prosecutors in District Attorney George Brauchler’s office, said jail and court policy dictated that Schroeder be held until he appeared before a judge so bond could be set for a felony assault charge of throwing feces at deputies. When Deputy District Attorney Laura Wilson filed that charge, she expected Schroeder would be held, Orman said.
“It was her understanding that he would be held until an arrest warrant on the new charge was filed,” Orman said. “Our belief was he wouldn’t get out because of the outstanding charge.”
But Arapahoe County sheriff’s spokeswoman Julie Brooks said despite the fact the prosecutor filed the new charge, the sheriff’s office couldn’t hold him without a signed arrest warrant. It didn’t matter that deputies knew about the pending case. “They have to release an inmate if no warrant has been filed,” Brooks said.
As a result, jailers released Schroeder at 7:46 p.m. May 21, or about six hours after Judge Jeffrey Holmes sentenced him to probation in an unrelated case. Holmes has declined to comment.
The case is complicated partly because Schroeder had kept committing new crimes. He was arrested and charged with four felony offenses and two misdemeanors over a threemonth span.
Aurora police arrested him Feb. 8 on a felony charge of drug dealing. On April 2, he was charged with robbery in a bad drug deal related to the earlier drug case, Orman said. On April 24, while he was in jail, he was charged with contraband after he barricaded himself in his cell. Jailers later found a shank — a sharpened toothbrush — in his cell.
In was evident that Schroeder was severely mentally ill and he wasn’t getting treatment in jail, so Wilson negotiated a plea agreement so he could get psychological treatment and be supervised by a specially trained probation officer, Maillaro said.
But Schroeder never reported to that probation officer.
A prison sentence wasn’t mandatory for Schroeder’s charges, Orman said. Under Colorado law, Schroeder could have been sentenced to between four and 12 years in prison for the drugdealing charge alone.
Having a convict commit new crimes while on probation is a prosecutor’s “worst nightmare,” Orman said.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the guard who was killed,” he said.