Judge rules suspect competent
Wolf underwent restoration efforts at Colorado Mental Health Institute in 2021
A judge has determined that a man accused in a 2019 Fourmile Canyon murder is competent enough to stand trial.
Stephen Christopher Wolf, 29, is charged with first-degree murder after deliberation, felony murder, first-degree burglary, second-degree burglary, tampering with a deceased human body, vehicular eluding and tampering with physical evidence in the death of Jeffrey Michael Lynch, 57.
Wolf was declared incompetent to proceed in September 2021 and ordered to undergo restoration efforts at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo before being transferred back to Boulder County Jail.
At a competency hearing Thursday, doctors offered differing opinions on Wolf, with defense saying Wolf suffered from schizophrenia and delusions while prosecutors argued Wolf had a behavioral disorder but was mentally fit to stand trial.
In a written ruling issued late Thursday, Boulder District Judge Patrick Butler ruled that defense attorneys did not meet the burden of proof and deemed Wolf was competent enough to proceed.
In his ruling, Butler said that only one doctor felt Wolf was showing symptoms of schizophrenia, and noted that all of the other medical professionals who evaluated Wolf felt he had antisocial personality disorder or a
“cannabis disorder.”
Butler also said that even if the schizophrenia diagnosis is correct, defense attorneys were not able to show that “defendant does not have sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyers with a reasonable degree of rational understanding in order to assist in his defense.”
Butler said testimony and reports indicated Wolf during his stay at the state hospital “was demanding and difficult, but his thought process was organized and directed. He did not display
any behavior which displayed a thought process difficulty.”
“Defendant has consistently referred with and relied upon his attorneys for legal guidance in this case,” Butler wrote. “He possesses his legal paperwork with great care. He has expressed numerous legal thought processes such as probable cause, a warrant, the Constitution and having his rights protected.”
Wolf, who remains in custody at the Boulder County Jail, will now be set for a status conference.
According to an arrest affidavit, Lynch was reported missing July 30, 2019, after he failed to show up at his girlfriend’s house on the previous Sunday.
Lynch was a general contractor and had been working on a vacant house on Camino Bosque in Fourmile Canyon, so the property owners went to see if
Lynch was there. The owners arrived and found Wolf, who they did not know, sitting in Lynch’s car in the garage.
The property owner confronted Wolf, who said he was there to clean before saying the police were after him.
The homeowner said she had not hired anyone to work on the house other than Lynch, and she called the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office.
When deputies arrived, they found Wolf carrying shovels in a trash bag, according to the affidavit. Wolf saw the deputies and ran into the garage, but the two deputies handcuffed him.
Deputies searched Lynch’s car and found his body wrapped in plastic in the trunk of the vehicle.
The coroner’s office ruled the cause of Lynch’s death was “homicidal violence by unspecified means.” While the report could not specify any exact injuries Lynch sustained, due in part to decomposition of the body, a forensic pathologist ruled the manner of death a homicide.
Prosecutors said Wolf, who had been trying to elude police following a traffic stop two days before being found with the body, broke into the home in the hopes of finding fuel for his car, and killed Lynch upon finding him in the house.
Wolf also has been charged with attempted first-degree murder and second-degree assault after reportedly assaulting an inmate at the jail.