CITY TO BUILD 15,000 RAMPS TO SETTLE ACCESS SUIT
SPRINGS» The COLORADO city has agreed to install more than 15,000 curb ramps over the next 14 years to settle its second lawsuit in six months involving claims that Colorado Springs’ streets and sidewalks are inaccessible to the disabled.
The newest lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Denver by Tim Fox and Julia Campins. The two attorneys represent the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center and Campins Benham-Baker, respectively.
Suspect in killing dies in El Salvador.
A man suspected in the shooting death of a 22-year-old woman in Aurora has been shot dead in El Salvador.
Carlos Miguel RiveraJuarez, 26, was shot dead Dec. 7 in Usulutan, El Salvador, according to the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office.
Rivera-Juarez was the lone suspect in the August 2016 murder of Jessica Gabriela Plata-Ledezma, according to a news release. She had been shot in the head and stabbed 11 times, according to the coroner’s office.
Rivera-Juarez, who was in the United States illegally, had been deported to El Salvador on Sept. 30, 2016. A warrant for his arrest was issued April 7, 2017.
Man convicted of murder in deadly park shooting.
AURORA» A 31-year-old man has been convicted of second-degree murder for a deadly 2017 shooting at Cherry Creek State Park.
The Aurora Sentinel reports an Arapahoe County jury Wednesday found Joseph Wayne Washington guilty of murder, multiple felony drug charges and tampering with a witness.
Prosecutors say Washington shot 26-year-old Jackson Chavez twice after a fight between the two during a cookout in August 2017.
Authorities say they found thousands of dollars in drugs, including LSD, cocaine and methamphetamine, after searching his home and car.
Fire damages home deemed “uninhabitable.”
A Littleton home that was entangled in a lengthy legal battle over municipal code violations was significantly damaged in a fire Tuesday morning, Littleton police said in a news release.
The home in the 7800 block of South Windermere Circle was set to be demolished after the owner failed to fix code violations that had rendered the home “uninhabitable.” After failing to bring the home to livable standards, an order to demolish the home was issued in November, the news release stated.
The homeowner appealed the order. Hearings were delayed several times into early 2019 at the homeowner’s request.
Five compound suspects plead not guilty to terror charges.
Five people arrested at a ramshackle New Mexico compound where one of the suspect’s sons was found dead pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal terrorism-related charges and other counts that their attorneys say the group would not be facing if they weren’t Muslims.
The two men and three women have been charged of conspiring to support planned attacks on U.S. law enforcement officers, military members and government employees while living on the outskirts of Amalia, just south of the Colorado state line.
They have been in federal custody since August on firearms charges that accuse them of conspiring to provide weapons and ammunition to Jany Leveille, one of the five and a leader of the group who is from Haiti and had been living in the country illegally.
The group had traveled in late 2017 from Georgia to New Mexico.
The group’s settlement had consisted of a camping trailer wedged into the desert and surrounded by stacked tires before authorities raided it and found 11 hungry children, guns and ammunition, a firing range.
Man charged with killing mother held on $1 million bail.
CASPER» A man accused of the shooting death of his mother has been ordered held on $1 million bail.
The Casper Star-Tribune reports that 27-yearold Andrew Steplock of Casper faces charges of felony murder, seconddegree murder, aggravated burglary and possession of a deadly weapon in connection with the February death of 58-year-old Deborah Steplock.
Authorities say Steplock did not enter a plea Thursday but was assigned a defense attorney.
The prosecutor says Steplock gave his address as a warehouse in the central Wyoming city.
Authorities say Steplock was extradited from Colorado, where they say he fled after entering his parents’ home in a burglary attempt and shooting his mother Feb. 26.