BREAKING: Andrade sentenced to life without parole in Zapata killing
GREELEY — A man convicted Wednesday of using a fire extinguisher to crush the skull of a transgender Greeley woman was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole just over an hour after a jury returned guilty verdicts on all four counts charged, including first-degree murder and hate-crime charges. Weld District Judge Marcelo Kopcow imposed the mandatory life sentence on Allen Andrade, 32, for murdering Angie Zapata, 18, last summer in Greeley.
BREAKING: Andrade guilty on 1st degree murder, hate crime charges in Zapata slaying
GREELEY — In an unusually swift decision, a jury on Wednesday afternoon delivered guilty verdicts on all four counts -- including first-degree murder and hate-crime charges -- filed against a Thornton man accused in the brutal slaying of 18-year-old Angie Zapata, a transgender Greeley woman. The jury reached its decision after less than two hours of deliberation, casting aside defense arguments that Allen Andrade, 32, "snapped" and beat the teen to death with a fire extinguisher after he discovered Zapata was transgender.
Obama education advisor Johnston joins race for Groff’s Senate seat
Should Michael Johnston, a white, Harvard- and Yale-educated school principal who grew up in the ski town of Vail, really have a shot at being appointed to the state Senate in one of the most ethnically diverse districts in Colorado?
Outspoken Archbishop Chaput yet to weigh in on Bush torture memos
Archbishop of Denver Charles Chaput is not one to shy away from national politics and he encourages Catholics around the country to engage as well. The connection between Catholic ethics and government policy is fast becoming a specialty in his public speaking. Yet so far there has been nothing issued from his office to guide Catholic thought on the matter of the shocking Bush torture memos and the meaning of their release.
Torture-memo politics force desire for Bush retribution, Obama reflection
The Web is brimming today with comment on Obama's release of the Bush team's torture memos, much of it decrying Obama's accompanying statement, in which he said he believes the torturers should not be held to account.
But the politics that gave rise to the memos suggest a more accurate reading of the politics surrounding their release.
Prosecutor: Accused Zapata killer didn’t ‘snap’ at transgender ‘deception’
GREELEY — A man who told his girlfriend "gay things must die" — as he sat in jail accused of bludgeoning an 18-year-old transgender woman to death with his fists and a fire extinguisher — was laughing and joking and didn't really mean it, a defense attorney told jurors Thursday as the trial of Allen Andrade got under way. "This case is not about a judgment of lifestyle," public defender Bradley Martin said in opening remarks. "This case is about a deception and the reaction to that deception."
Gay marriage watchers eye Colorado
Last week in gay marriage, which brought groundbreaking developments in Iowa and Vermont, underlined the patchwork nature of our country's legal fabric, leaving citizens across the country scratching their heads: "What does it mean?" "What happens next?"
ACLU Director Matt Coles has written a short guide to the issue at the ACLU blog, where he explains that the future of gay marriage hinges on what happens in states like Colorado.
Jury selection starts Tuesday in trial of man charged with Zapata slaying
The 300 Weld County residents who report for jury duty Tuesday won’t know at first whether they might wind up deciding the fate of a man accused of beating to death Angie Zapata, a 17-year-old transgender woman — first with his fists and then with a fire extinguisher — last summer in Greeley.
Talk Left blasts federal hate-crimes bill, warns against ‘punishing thought’
With the trial of a man accused of brutally slaying a transgender Greeley woman about to start, gay-rights and anti-violence groups are urging Congress to pass federal hate-crime legislation. But a Denver criminal defense attorney and progressive blogger says not so fast.
"Cooler heads are needed where our fundamental liberties are at stake," Talk Left founder Jeralyn Merritt writes Monday:
Udall: ‘Now is the time’ for Congress to pass Matthew Shepard Act
Invoking the brutal murders of Matthew Shepard and Angie Zapata, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall called on Congress "to finally pass" federal hate crimes legislation in an opinion column published Sunday in the Boulder Daily Camera.
Days before the trial of Zapata's accused killer was set to begin in Greeley, the Boulder County Democrat lamented that "vile prejudice based on sexual orientation still plagues our society" a decade after Shepard, a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in the cold.