Triplemurder case headed for re-trial
A man previously convicted in a triple-murder case will get a new trial after the Colorado Supreme Court decided not to examine a Boulder district judge’s ruling that his first trial was tainted by juror misconduct.
Garrett Coughlin, 30, was convicted in 2019 of three counts of felony first-degree murder and one count of aggravated robbery in the shooting deaths of Wallace White, Kelly Sloat-white, and Emory Fraker on April 13, 2017, at the Whites’ home in Coal Creek Canyon.
Coughlin was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but Coughlin’s defense attorneys filed an appeal asking for a new trial, alleging two jurors lied on their questionnaires.
Then-boulder District Court Judge Judith Labuda granted the appeal and overturned the conviction, finding that one of the jurors deliberately and repeatedly lied or misled the court about her family’s criminal history.
The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office appealed the decision, but it was upheld by the Colorado Court of Appeals. Prosecutors asked the Colorado Supreme Court to take up the case, but it declined to do so.
On Jan. 31, Boulder District Judge Patrick Butler issued an order to have Coughlin returned to the Boulder County Jail.
“Defendant should be in the same status as a pre-trial inmate and returned to the custody of the Boulder County Sheriff, pending an outcome to this case,” Butler wrote.
Records indicate Coughlin is not yet at the Boulder County Jail and for now remains at the Sterling Correctional Facility, but Coughlin does have a status conference set for Wednesday in Boulder District Court.
Since Coughlin’s initial trial, the murder count he was convicted on has since been downgraded to a Class 2 felony that would no longer carry a life sentence if he were convicted.
However, prosecutors did originally also charge Coughlin with first-degree murder after deliberation, which would still carry a life sentence.
The three bodies were found on April 15, 2017, in the 800 block of Divide View Drive.
White and Sloat-white lived at the home, and Fraker was White’s brother and lived in Broomfield.
An arrest affidavit stated all three suffered gunshot wounds, and investigators said they were able to tie Coughlin to the gun used in the homicides.
During the investigation, detectives learned that guns were missing from Coughlin’s mother’s house, and Coughlin had departed Colorado the week after the homicides.
Investigators said they tied Coughlin to the home on Divide View Drive and determined through interviews that he had shown up four hours late for work on the morning police believe the three were killed.
Deputies removed 100 marijuana plants from the property during the investigation, and witnesses told investigators that they saw Coughlin with large amounts of pot packaged in a manner consistent with the marijuana owned by the victims, as well as large amounts of cash following the homicides.