AURORA | The Colorado Supreme Court turned back a new trial request from a man convicted in the 2005 murder of the son of Arapahoe County Commissioner Rhonda Fields, and his fiancée.
The high court turned down a request by Robert Keith Ray, who was convicted in 2009 for his part in the murders of Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe in Aurora.
Ray and Sir Mario Owens were convicted of killing Gregory Vann in July 2004 at Lowry Park in Aurora. They were later accused and convicted of gunning down a witness to Vann’s murder, Javad Marshall-Fields. Owens and Ray killed Marshall-Fields and his fiancee, Vivian Wolfe, so Marshall-Fields couldn’t testify about the Lowry Park shooting, prosecutors said.
Owens and Ray were convicted in all three of the murders.
Rhonda Fields went on to become an activist for gun control and sentencing accountability, eventually winning a seat in first the state House and then the state Senate. She was elected to the Arapahoe County commission last fall.
In commenting on a unanimous decision issued Monday, Justice William W. Hood III said that while there were some issues surrounding evidence in his first trial, the questions did not rise to a level of potentially undermining the fairness of the trial nor influencing the jury’s guilty verdict, according to the court opinion.
Both Ray and Owens were sentenced to death for the 2005 killings.
Owens also was denied a new trial in 2017 by an Arapahoe County District Court, who said Owens’ voluminous claims of an incompetent legal team and tainted jury were unfounded.
Death sentences for both Owens and Ray were commuted to life in prison in 2020 after Colorado repealed its death penalty.
Gov. Jared Polis’ commutation of the sentences, after the 2020 repeal of the death sentence in Colorado, was harshly criticized by Fields and other Aurora prosecutors.
“In a stroke of a pen, Gov. Polis hijacks justice and undermines our criminal justice system,” Fields said after the 2020 commutation of Owens, Ray and other death-row inmates linked to Aurora cases.
Current local prosecutors said the high court review highlighted how grave and solid the cases and convictions were.
“The Supreme Court’s unanimous affirmation of both Ray and Owens convictions ensures that the criminal justice system will seek out those who attack that justice system by killing witnesses,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Ann Tomsic said in a statement Tuesday. “On behalf of the victims’ families and the community that was so stunned by these murders, we are grateful the Court recognized that the trial, despite its complexities, was fair and the verdicts were sound
Current Arapahoe County District Attorney Amy Padden said that this final question about the murder case of Marshall-Fields and Wolfe ends the possibility of further threats to the community by the convicts.
“The Colorado Supreme Court has made it clear: Robert Ray will remain exactly where he belongs — behind bars for the rest of his life,” Padden said. “Justice has prevailed. The victims’ families and our community can take comfort in knowing these killers will never walk free.”