AURORA | The chief judge in Adams County is retiring early next year.
Judge C. Vincent Phelps, who has been chief judge in Adams and Broomfield counties since 2008, is retiring Jan. 31, 2014, state court officials announced Tuesday.
Phelps, who has been on the bench in Adams County District Court since 1996, has presided over a handful of high-profile Aurora cases in his decade and a half there.
In 2009 Phelps sentenced Brian Allen Washington to 80 years in prison — the maximum sentence allowed — for gunning down Aurora police Detective Mike Thomas in 2006.
He also oversaw the 2009 trial of Harry Williams, who was convicted of killing Rodney Morales, an Aurora code officer. Williams was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder.
The Seventeenth Judicial District Nominating Commission, which is tasked with finding nominees for Phelps’ replacement, will meet at the Adams County Justice Center on Dec. 3 to interview and select candidates. Gov. John Hickenlooper will then appoint a new chief judge from those nominees.