AURORA | An 18-year-old runaway from Memphis, Tennessee has been sentenced to several decades in prison for the 2017 killing of an Aurora man in his Clinton Street home, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
An Arapahoe County judge sentenced Marquez “Memphis” Woodruff to life in prison Dec. 27 for the Dec. 16, 2017 murder of 36-year-old Terry Capler.
But because Woodruff was 16 when he fatally shot Capler in the head and chest, he will be eligible for parole in approximately 40 years, according to the DA’s office.
District Attorney George Brauchler suggested Woodruff will likely be able to apply for parole much sooner than 2059.
“Make no mistake, this killer is not required to serve anywhere near 40 years,” Brauchler said in a statement. “And he likely will not. He will be allowed to apply for a special program for those juveniles who have earned long sentences through murder, and — if successfully completed — he will be presumed safe to return to our communities. This is no joke. This is our law.”
Police responded to Capler’s north Aurora home in the 1400 block of Clinton Street shortly after 5:30 a.m. Dec. 16, 2017 after an unidentified person reported a shooting in the area. First responders found Capler in the living room of his home with a gunshot wound to the face, according to court documents. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The unnamed witness who reported the killing later told police he had been at Capler’s home with a person named “Memphis” and an unnamed female earlier in the evening. Prosecutors later determined the group was drinking alcohol, doing cocaine and ingesting other drugs.
The witness said he “observed Memphis draw a small black handgun from his waist band, hold it with both hands, point it directly at Capler, and fired several rounds,” according to an arrest affidavit filed against Woodruff.
The unidentified witness, who was temporarily living with Capler, called police early in the morning after hiding in a bedroom at the house and cradling Capler’s bloody body trying to revive him, he told police. He called authorities from a nearby 7-Eleven after multiple passing drivers ignored his requests for help, he said.
“No one stopped to help him,” according to the affidavit.
Capler, who was the father of four children, was letting Woodruff and his girlfriend stay at his home because the couple didn’t have a place to stay and were living in an East Colfax motel, the witness told police.
Neither the unnamed witness nor Woodruff’s girlfriend, who was in a bathroom in Capler’s house at the time of the shooting, were charged in connection with the killing, according to a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office.
Investigators determined Woodruff was previously enrolled at a school in Memphis, Tennessee, but formally listed as a runaway in Aurora on Dec. 8, 2017.
Police later used phone records and Facebook photos to locate Woodruff and accuse him of the killing. Woodruff’s Facebook profile was listed under the name “Mempho Blackchapo,” according to the affidavit.
The unidentified witness said he did not know why Woodruff shot Capler, though he heard the pair discussing the whereabouts of a safe prior to the shooting. Police later found a safe in Capler’s bedroom containing “a small amount of suspected methamphetamine and several packaged collectable coins,” according to the arrest document.
A jury convicted Woodruff of first-degree murder in September.
“After testifying at trial and claiming self-defense, the defendant now claims he can’t remember anything, including the trial,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Amy Ferrin said in a statement. “His lack of remorse and unwillingness to take accountability shock the conscience.”
Woodruff has continued to rack up charges while incarcerated at the Arapahoe County Jail, including participating in riots and introducing contraband, according to county records. He has yet to be transferred to a state prison and has additional local court hearings scheduled in 2020.