A Colorado hiker who was missing for months was found dead in late October, but his 14-year-old Jack Russell terrier was found alive and waiting by the hiker's side, according to reports from the area.

A hunter came across the body of 71-year-old Rich Moore in the Lower Blanco drainage basin on Oct. 30, according to reporting by 9News in Colorado. And Moore's white Jack Russell terrier, Finney, was found alive nearby.

The man who shot a Waffle House cook who had asked him to wear a mask or leave the restaurant during the 2020 COVID-19 restaurant mask mandate has been sentenced to over a decade in prison.

Arapahoe County District Court Judge Jacob Edson in November sentenced Kelvin Watson, 30, to 13 years in Department of Corrections custody after he pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder and a sentence enhancer for committing a violent crime with a weapon in the 2020 shooting in Aurora, the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.

Watson pleaded guilty earlier this month.

“While restaurants and stores are public places, businesses have the right to refuse service or ask customers to leave their establishment,” 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner said. “The defendant drove back to the restaurant and shot an innocent employee for no reason other than doing his job.”

Watson first went to the Waffle House in the 12800 block of East Mississippi Avenue about midnight May 14, 2020, according to a news release. He entered without a mask and employees told him he needed to have the mask on or they couldn’t serve him.

A waitress said Watson left and came back with a mask but wouldn’t put it on, according to the news release. When employees asked him to leave again, he pulled out a gun and threatened the restaurant cook.

He left again, and the incident was reported to police that morning, but about midnight the next day, Aurora police officers were called to a shooting at the Waffle House and found the cook who was threatened the night before shot in the stomach, according to the news release.

The cook identified Watson as the suspect, and staff noted he was a “regular” at the restaurant.

Police at the time said Watson returned and slapped the cook across the face when he was told again he was not going to be served. Watson shot the cook outside the restaurant as the cook ran to get away. The cook was later released from the hospital.

Following Watson’s release from prison, he will be placed on mandatory parole for three years, according to the news release.

Colorado authorities have “no obligation” to find a foster child who has run away and the child welfare cases of missing kids are often closed due to a lack of funding, according to a new report requested by lawmakers.

The state child welfare division, which is participating in the task force, told The Sun it does not have funding to “contract with investigators and apprehend young people,” but that counties often “make efforts to locate young people within existing resources.”

Twenty foster children exited the child welfare system by running away in the nine months from October 2022 to June, according to state data. Colorado has about 3,500 children living in foster families, residential treatment centers, and other placements.

Coloradans might have to say goodbye to verdant green medians full of grass if state lawmakers succeed in a plan to save water by banning new nonnative ornamental turf.

A bipartisan draft bill approved Tuesday by the Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee would prohibit state government, local governments and homeowners’ associations from planting new nonfunctional turf, artificial turf or invasive plants on any commercial, industrial or institutional property beginning at the start of 2025.

The proposed ban would not apply to residential lawns.

The goal behind the proposed legislation is to reduce water use in the often drought-ridden state as Colorado becomes warmer and more arid. Nearly half of water used in cities and towns goes to watering lawns — most of which are planted with nonnative turf, said Lindsay Rogers, a policy advisor with Western Resource Advocates who testified on the draft bill during Tuesday’s hearing.

“Our new bill makes a simple change that will have major ripple effects,” Sen. Dylan Roberts, a Frisco Democrat, said in a news release. “By restricting the installation of grass turf in new developments and nonfunctional areas, we can significantly cut down on nonessential water use and ensure we’re using our water as efficiently as possible.”

The bipartisan bill is part of an ongoing effort in Colorado and across the drying West to reduce the amount of water-dependent grasses with plants that can thrive in the region’s climates with little or no extra watering. Though municipal water use makes up only 7% of Colorado’s annual average use — about 90% is used for agriculture — replacing ornamental grass is an impactful tool that reduces water use, Rogers said.

The bill defines nonfunctional turf as grass that is predominantly ornamental and serves no function. Common examples are road medians and strips of grass between a sidewalk and a street. The bill does not ban the use of grass on private residences or in places where it serves a purpose, such as parks, sports fields or playgrounds. “It’s ornamental, it’s purely aesthetic,” Andrew Hill, the government affairs manager at Denver Water, said during this week’s hearing.

Banning the installation of ornamental, nonnative grasses is much cheaper than replacing grass that’s already installed, said Greg Fisher, Denver Water’s manager of demand planning and efficiency.

“We really do need to make this change starting now,” he said.

The potential ban on artificial turf is meant to reduce negative impacts associated with it, including an exacerbation of the heat island effect, in which urban areas become hotter because artificial infrastructure reflects heat instead of absorbing it, as vegetation does. Artificial turf also can release chemicals into watersheds.

Colorado lawmakers in 2022 passed a bill that provided financial incentives to local governments, nonprofits and other entities to replace irrigated turf with more water-efficient landscaping. Several municipalities, including Aurora and Broomfield, have approved ordinances that restrict the use of ornamental turf or help pay to replace it.

The draft bill next will be reviewed by the Legislative Council. Four lawmakers — Roberts, Rep. Karen McCormick, D-Longmont; Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango; and Sen. Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa — said they would sponsor the bill during the 2024 legislative session, which is set to begin Jan. 10.

Interesting and hopeful read.

Relying on Colorado's 2020 police accountability law, a man attempted to sue the Huerfano County sheriff for causing the prosecution of his assailant to fall through.

A crime victim cannot claim the Huerfano County Sheriff's Office violated his constitutional rights when it failed to process key evidence and compromised his assailant's prosecution, Colorado's second-highest court ruled on Thursday.

In a case that seemed to be the first of its kind, Brian Puerta attempted to sue Sheriff Bruce Newman and three of his subordinates for their failure to submit evidence of his attempted murder for testing in time for the perpetrator's trial. Puerta's lawsuit invoked Colorado's landmark police accountability law, enacted in 2020, which enables people to hold police officers liable for violations of state constitutional rights.

However, a three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals noted the Colorado Constitution forbids the government from depriving someone of life, liberty or property without due process. There was no dispute Puerta's life and liberty were not at stake, so the only question was whether a competent investigation by law enforcement amounted to a "property" interest.

The panel found no such guarantee existed for Puerta.

"Indeed, the limited case law considering whether a crime victim has a property interest in law enforcement officers’ performance of their duties weighs against Puerta’s position," wrote Judge Lino S. Lipinsky de Orlov in the Oct. 26 opinion.

The General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 217 as a wide-reaching police reform measure soon after a police officer murdered George Floyd while arresting him in Minneapolis. Sponsors of the legislation invoked the deaths of other Black Americans, including Breonna Taylor in Kentucky and Elijah McClain in Aurora, in justifying the new accountability measures.

Puerta's lawsuit raised a different sort of dilemma: How can a crime victim hold law enforcement responsible for their mistakes in an investigation?

Relatedly, do Colorado's laws and constitution protect due process rights more broadly than the U.S. Constitution?

Case: Puerta v. Newman

Decided: October 26, 2023

Jurisdiction: Huerfano County

Ruling: 3-0

Judges: Lino S. Lipinsky de Orlov

Craig R. Welling

Christina F. Gomez

"There currently is no state authority mandating that the police do anything in particular to make sure criminal defendants are prosecuted adequately, thus the Court of Appeals reached the correct result in this case," said David Lane, a civil rights attorney.

However, Andy McNulty, a lawyer who also litigates civil rights cases, criticized the Court of Appeals panel for borrowing from the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the federal Constitution, rather than exploring the limits of Colorado's own due process guarantee.

"The court has to do its own independent analysis," he said.

According to his lawsuit brought in Huerfano County District Court, Puerta was sitting in his parked car near Walsenburg when John Wilson shot him three times for no apparent reason. A helicopter had to transport Puerta to Pueblo for emergency surgery.

Police soon apprehended Wilson and prosecutors charged him with attempted murder. Wilson's trial was scheduled for November 2021, meaning the prosecution needed to disclose its evidence to the defense 35 days beforehand.

Despite the prodding of the district attorney's office, Undersheriff Milan Rapo, Captain Craig Lessar and Deputy Roman Hijar did not send the gun, bullets and other evidence to the state for testing in time for the deadline. Because of the oversight, District Attorney Henry Solano called Puerta to say he had to abandon the attempted murder charge and prosecute Wilson for felony menacing instead.

Wilson ultimately pleaded guilty to vehicular eluding and received three years in prison, rather than 15-25 years for attempted murder.

Puerta and Solano both filed civil suits against the sheriff's office. Solano alleged the office had a pattern of withholding evidence that compromised public safety in the county. A judge agreed Newman had a "persistent failure" with compliance and ordered the sheriff to comply with his legal obligations in December 2021. Earlier this year, the same judge, M. Jon Kolomitz, held Newman in contempt for disobeying the order.

At the same time, Kolomitz considered Puerta's claims against the sheriff and his subordinates.

The defendants "recklessly interfered with Mr. Puerta’s rights as a victim by obstructing the District Attorney’s ability to prosecute Mr. Wilson, thus denying Mr. Puerta’s right to due process," wrote Puerta's attorneys.

Kolomitz disagreed that the constitutional right to due process allowed Puerta to sue for a shoddy police investigation. He also rejected the idea that Puerta, as a crime victim, was deprived of his right to speak at Wilson's sentencing hearing for the specific crime of attempted murder.

During oral arguments before the Court of Appeals panel earlier this month, the judges appeared uncertain how Puerta could realistically claim he personally had a "property" interest in the correct handling of evidence.

"You’d have to argue for a particular amount of damages," Lipinsky observed.

"He was extremely put off by the fact that the trial did not go forward," responded Puerta's attorney, Robert M. Liechty. Also, "for the indignation that he had to suffer for not being able to have the satisfaction of a criminal against him be punished."

"But you can't tell us the amount?" Lipinsky asked.

Judge Craig R. Welling wondered how Puerta would prove at trial that the improper handling of evidence violated his own constitutional rights.

"You have to have a trial within a trial that establishes, had this been processed, they wouldn’t have dropped the charges. And had they not dropped the charges and had this evidence, they would have been able to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," he said.

Welling cautioned the result could be that anytime a defendant is acquitted, a victim would be able to sue the police for an allegedly sloppy investigation.

In the panel's opinion, Lipinsky explained that Puerta's "indignation" about the handling of his case did not rise to a constitutional violation.

He cited Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales, a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found a Colorado woman could not sue the government for law enforcement's failure to enforce a restraining order against her husband, who ultimately violated the order and killed their children. The Supreme Court's majority believed the federal Constitution did not guarantee "the benefit that a third party may receive from having someone else arrested."

Relying heavily on the Castle Rock decision, the panel reasoned the state constitution did not contain that guarantee either.

Lawyers for the defendants declined to comment and Puerta's attorney did not immediately respond to an email.

Police found two people killed in a suspected murder-suicide after breaching the walls of a Severance home while responding to a report of gunshots following a disturbance on Wednesday.

After police breached the walls of the home in the 800 block of Emerald Lakes Street, they reported finding the body of a minor with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. They also reported finding the body of a female who appeared to have sustained a gunshot before her death.

“The team was very methodical and patient and did everything it could. We did numerous callouts anticipating the party may be inside the house,” Severance Police Chief Ken Chavez said. “But it’s a bad outcome, obviously. We have a homicide and suicide, both, and a family tragedy.”

Police said they exhausted all options before obtaining a search warrant to breach the house and that there were no other suspects involved and no further threat to people in the area.

Police blocked off the neighborhood in Severance earlier in the afternoon, just after 2:30 p.m., when neighbors reported a juvenile suspect came outside and fired two shots, hitting a car across the street. After about a minute, another shot was fired inside the house.

At the time, police thought two people were still inside the house, and they believed at least one was alive, but they could not establish contact.

“We’re still trying to find out the status of the inside of the house,” Chavez said as police were staged outside the home.

When police arrived, they helped an elderly man climb out of a window of the house. He was not seriously injured but was taken to a hospital with minor injuries sustained climbing out the window.

Officers from Severance, Windsor, Ault, Eaton, Colorado State Patrol, Greeley SWAT and the Weld County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.