AURORA | Convicted murderer and death-row inmate Sir Mario Owens was denied a new trial Monday by an Arapahoe County District Court Judge, who said Owens’ voluminous claims of an incompetent legal team and tainted jury were unfounded.
“As the defenders of Mr. Owens we are saddened and disappointed in the decision of the court but it does not weaken our unflinching resolve to seek a just result,” lead defense attorney James Castle said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Owens (and victims and families of victims) at this time as well as with all the people who have been effected by this case.”
Owens was convicted of killing Gregory Vann in July 2004 at Lowry Park in Aurora and later of gunning down a witness, Javad Marshall-Fields, and Marshall-Fields’ fiancee, Vivian Wolfe, so Marshall-Fields couldn’t testify about the Lowry Park shooting. Marshall-Fields was the son of state Sen. Rhonda Fields.
“Of course I was very pleased (with the ruling). Ever since my son’s murder, I was kind of feeling like we had a broken criminal justice system. Here with this ruling, it shows our system does work and I believe the outcome was just,” said Fields. “It has been a long process and I’m still having to deal with the ghost of this trial. This is a huge victory and this is an acknowledgement of all the good police work in my son and (Vivian Wolfe’s) murder and all the good work done by the prosecutors.”
Since his 2008 death sentence for the witness slayings, Owens’ appeal has been slowly working its way through the courts.
Earlier this year, Owens’ appellate lawyers filed several motions asking for a new trial — and short of that at a minimum evidentiary hearings — because one of the jurors in his Lowry Park trial had ties to several people involved in the case that she failed to disclose.
The juror in question had ties to both Marshall-Fields’ family and several witnesses who were at Lowry Park the day of the shooting, Owens’ lawyers argued in a 200-plus-page document filed last month. From jury selection through this year when the juror tried to avoid defense attempts to serve her with court papers, the lawyers argue she has ducked the truth.
“Juror 75 was determined to keep her seat on that jury, even if it meant perjuring herself and committing fraud on the parties, the courts, and the public, and depriving Owens of his basic, fundamental rights to fair trial before an impartial jury,” the motion said.
But prosecutors argue the defense’s efforts center on many items that have been discussed at great length in court already.
“Allegations and argument regarding the previously litigated claims, though colorfully and enthusiastically presented … do not raise new issues or present new evidence that justifies once again treading over the same well-trod ground,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors also said that in the case of the juror’s connection to Marshall-Fields’ family, Owens’ lawyers hadn’t shown those connections existed until after the trial.
Owens was convicted separately of killing Vann at Lowry Park and later of killing Marshall-Fields and Wolfe. But at his death penalty sentencing in the witness slayings, prosecutors pointed to his prior murder conviction in the Lowry Park case as an aggravating factor that made him eligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors argued at trial that Owens’ friend and co-defendant, Robert Ray, was the mastermind behind the witness slayings. After Lowry park, Ray was the only person charged in relation to Vann’s slaying and Marshall-Fields, who was also wounded that day, was slated to testify against Ray.
Ray was also convicted of murder in relation to Marshall-Fields and Wolfe — though prosecutors argued he didn’t pull the trigger and ordered Owens to carry out the crime. He was sentenced to death as well.