Charges involve two victims

ALAMOSA — At the conclusion of another day of testimony from law enforcement officers in a preliminary hearing related to the shooting of Alamosa Police Department Officer Mollee Heeney and Ricardo Rangel by a 15-year-old juvenile in Alamosa, Judge Newmyer-Olsen ruled that all counts 10 counts filed by the 12^th Judicial District Attorney’s Office will be bound over to district court for prosecution.

The juvenile is charged in connection with an incident that occurred on Oct. 27, 2022. APD Officer Heeney was dispatched to the 1200 block of Denver in Alamosa on the report of a disturbance in progress. Upon arriving on the scene, Heeney encountered the juvenile who was holding a weapon and allegedly fired several rounds at the officer, striking her in the leg and the shoulder. A second victim, Rangel, was also shot in the altercation.

The judge’s ruling was made following a somewhat detailed argument from defense counsel stating that nothing in the juvenile’s actions indicated that firing his weapon at Officer Heeney was an act committed after deliberation.

Specifically, the juvenile was formally charged with attempted murder of a police officer for the alleged shooting of Heeney, a class 2 felony, and attempted murder for the alleged shooting of Rangel, also a class 2 felony. The juvenile was also charged with one count of first-degree assault of a police officer with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury, which is related to Heeney, and one count of assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury, related to Rangel. Both of those counts are class 3 felonies. The juvenile was also charged with criminal mischief, a class 2 misdemeanor, and illegal discharge of a weapon into a dwelling for allegedly firing a gun into the home of a neighbor living in close proximity to where the shootings of Heeney and Rangel took place.

On top of those six counts, Judge Newyer-Olson also bound over all four charges of “violent crimes” which are connected to the two attempted murder charges and the two counts of assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury. Binding those over as sentence enhancers to district court allows the district judge presiding in the case to expand the range of sentencing, should the juvenile be found guilty.

But the preliminary is just the first step of this two-step process.

Now that the district judge has ruled that there is probable cause that the juvenile could have committed the crimes of which he’s accused and the case should proceed to prosecution, it is up to the court of Judge Newmyer-Olsen to determine if the juvenile should be tried as an adult. If she rules that he is, that makes the 15-year-old subject to the same range of sentencing any adult would face if convicted of the crimes which he has been accused of committing.

In this phase of the proceedings, the testimony will be somewhat different. The defense counsel has already made it clear that they will be bringing in two expert witnesses who are expected to testify that the juvenile should not be tried as an adult for reasons that will only come out in court. It can also be anticipated that the defense will, as they have at previous hearings, present evidence that the juvenile is doing extremely well in the time he has spent at the Pueblo Detention Center and continuing in a juvenile correction facility would provide him the best opportunity to live a more productive life as an adult.

The prosecution has already made it clear that it will bring back witnesses with law enforcement who have already testified and some who have not as was demonstrated Tuesday when DA Ann Kelly called an analyst with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to testify as to what “criminal” behavior was found on the juvenile’s Facebook account.

The case will resume today, Aug. 23, in Judge Newmyer-Olsen’s court with a ruling, at least, at this point, expected on Friday.