Robert Dewey Cleared of Rape and Murder After Sixteen Years in Jail

[Whisper]

Robert Dewey

Robert Dewey Cleared Of 1994 Rape, Murder After New DNA Testing

A man who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole nearly 16 years ago may walk free Monday after being exonerated by a new analysis of DNA evidence.

Robert Dewey, 51, was convicted in Mesa County, Colo. for the 1994 rape and murder of Palisade resident Jacie Taylor. According to the Denver Post, Dewey has maintained his innocence over the years and repeatedly asked the court to order a retesting of the shaky DNA evidence used to convict him.

Taylor, who was just 19 at the time, had been found strangled to death in her apartment bathtub with a dog leash. She had been beaten and sexually assaulted.

Though evidence that was brought up throughout the trial included a handprint, semen and a blood stain, DNA testing at the time raised at least as many questions as clues.

"There was incomplete sampling done and had they done a greater sampling it would have shown the other person, or shown that it wasn't Mr. Dewey's," Dewey's defense attorney Steve Laiche told KJCT. "They never did have Mr. Dewey's DNA."

Blood found on Dewey's shirt was speculated to have come from Taylor, but an expert witness testified during Dewey's trial, it also could have come from approximately 45 percent of the Caucasian population.

Then-Mesa County District Judge Charles Buss, who handed down Dewey's life sentence in 1995, reportedly said, "I am happy to impose it on you."

That was less than five years before Tim Masters was wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of Peggy Hettrick. Masters would spend almost a decade behind bars before his conviction was overturned in 2008 because of DNA evidence. Hettrick's murder remains unsolved.

CBS4 reports that as the new DNA analysis in the Taylor case exonerates Dewey, it also points to another man believed to be a suspect in her death. Douglas Thames, 39, is already serving a life sentence with parole in Canon City for the murder of Susan Doll, who was also raped and strangled.
[...]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1463671.html

A screen capture of a Daily Sentinel photo of Dave and Jackie Taylor looking at a photo of their late daughter, Jacie

Robert Dewey reportedly cleared of rape, murder after sixteen years in jail

Robert Dewey always insisted that he didn't rape and murder nineteen-year-old Jacie Taylor in Palisade circa 1994 -- and now authorities have reportedly reached the same conclusion.

Unfortunately, this determination comes after he's spent almost sixteen years in jail for the crime.

The details of the shocking case can be found in this trove of newspaper clips covering Dewey's arrest and conviction. They're from either the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, which broke the news of Dewey's exoneration, or the Denver Post
[...]

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword...r_palisade.php

[Whisper]

Robert Dewey released for Jacie Taylor murder, convicted killer Douglas Thames top suspect

Douglas Thames

Last week, news broke that Robert Dewey had been exonerated in the 1994 slaying of Jacie Taylor, albeit after serving nearly sixteen years. Yesterday, Dewey was released around the same time authorities issued an arrest warrant for Douglas Thames, currently in stir for another rape and murder -- one for which he was convicted after the belated discovery of the victim's panties.

As we've reported, Jacie Taylor, age nineteen, was slain in June 1994. Her body was found in her Palisade apartment, naked from the waist down in a half-filled bathtub. She'd been beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled with a nylon dog leash.

Dewey, who was staying nearby with the family of Taylor's roommate, immediately became a suspect in the crime due in part to blood found on one of his work shirts. DNA testing on the garment convinced some investigators that the blood was a combination of Dewey's and Taylor's, while other experts believed the fluid could have come from literally thousands of others. Nonetheless, Dewey, whose alleged use of meth the day before the slaying appeared in the court record, was convicted and given life in prison.

After the jury delivered its verdict, Judge Charles Buss told Dewey, "I think this is a just sentence for you. You engaged in a few moments of pleasure with Miss Taylor and it cost her her life. It will haunt her parents and family for the rest of their lives." Regarding the sentence, Buss added, "I am happy to impose it on you."

For his part, Dewey never stopped declaring his innocence. During the trial, he said, "There's still a killer out there" -- and it turns out he was right. More effective DNA technology conducted under the auspices of the Colorado Attorney General's Justice Review Project cleared Dewey, resulting in a hearing yesterday at which Mesa County prosecutors formally apologized to him.

That same DNA pointed to another man as the suspected killer: Douglas Thames. As noted by the Fort Collins Coloradoan, Thames had previously been convicted of raping and murdering 39-year-old Susan Doll.

Not that justice was swift in that case. Doll was killed in 1989, when Thames was just sixteen years old. However, he wasn't arrested until 1995, when a pair of Doll's panties were found in a home where Thames previously lived.

[...]
He made these assertions around the time of his 1996 conviction, as well as in 2007, when he appealed his conviction -- an action that was denied three years later. Likewise, the Coloradoan notes that his family also insisted that he'd been railroaded during previous interviews. We'll see if he such claims surface again in the face of evidence that he committed a similar murder in Palisade a year before being busted in the Doll slaying.

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword...las_thames.php

[Whisper]

Family Says Another Innocent Man Is Behind Bars
Thames' Mom Says State Wrongfully Submitted Her Son's DNA And He's Innocent Of Both Murder Charges

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo., -- Just a week after Robert Dewey's murder conviction was overturned in Mesa County Court, we are hearing from the family of the man now implicated. Douglas Thames has been linked to the 1994 murder of Jacie Taylor, but his family says he's as innocent as Dewey is.
Thames' mom says there is no way he could have killed Jacie Taylor back in 1994, or Susan Doll in 1989 for that matter. She says she can even prove it. But the District Attorney's office says his DNA suggests otherwise.
"I don't believe there's anyway that he is guilty of it because that is not Doug," his mom Sandra Gifford said. "Doug is the kindest person you could ever meet. There isn't a person that he wouldn't help."
Gifford looked through old pictures to remember her son who has been in jail now for 17 years as well. Convicted of the 1989 murder of Susan Doll, his DNA has now been linked to Palisade woman Jacie Taylor's death from 1994.
"I think there are several men in prison for things they didn't do because I know my son is innocent," Gifford said.
And not just innocent of the most recent murder, but Gifford says her son is not involved in either of them.
"There was no way a 16 year old could have killed her," she said. "The vicious, and brutality that happened his attorney said there was no way."
Thames, who was a teenager at the time, claims he was out of town on a camping trip in 1989. His family says they even have the pictures to prove it. But during his trial, the DA didn't buy the story, accusing his family of doctoring those photos.
"Well it was a blue pen instead of a black pen that she had originally wrote on the photo and so then years later when they went through the photo albums there was two different colors on the back of the pictures," Gifford said.
Now nearly 18 years later, the same program that freed Dewey from his life sentence upheld Thames' conviction, and accusing him in another case. But his family insists they have got the wrong man for both murders; making a bold claim that the state is setting Thames up.
"They sent his name in and they sent another man's submission number in under my sons name to be tested for DNA and we have the documentation to prove it," Gifford said. "I always believed in the justice system, until this happened to my son."
Thames' family says they are just going to keep trying to prove his innocence and hope the justice system will grant his motion of appeal. The Colorado Juvenile Justice Coalition is also looking at his case.

http://www.kjct8.com/news/31018563/d...tml?hpt=ju_bn6

[blacksheep]

I hope he can do well after this tragedy, and the family of Jacie can now get through this tough time with as much grace as possible.

[Mommyof2]

I love the stupidity of tard defenders. Never mind the DNA linking my son to TWO murders, my boy would never do that... It's a set up by the police because they just hate him for no reason./ Yeah that's totally reasonable.

[Abroad]

I love the stupidity of tard defenders. Never mind the DNA linking my son to TWO murders, my boy would never do that... It's a set up by the police because they just hate him for no reason./ Yeah that's totally reasonable.

What exactly is it she is claiming? A conspiracy or a mix-up, - twice?

"They sent his name in and they sent another man's submission number in under my sons name to be tested for DNA and we have the documentation to prove it," Gifford said.

I'd love to see the "documentation"........