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Here are some additional notes from today’s sentencing hearing for Jeremy Petschow:

Jeremy Petschow’s public defenders contend that Gerry and Kim Shisler misidentified their client as the hooded intruder who shot him and narrowly missed her in the basement of their home in November 2000.

They contend it was co-defendant Brandon Warren who fired those shots.

“The Shislers are well meaning but mistaken,” said Deputy Public Defender Amanda Philipps. She noted that Gerry Sisler was unable to pick Petschow out of a photo lineup but later identified him in the courtroom.

“We know this was incredible traumatic for the Shislers,” she said. But that trauma can lead to misidentification, she said. Typically witnesses see the gun and not the gunman’s face.

“That is what I believe happened here,” Philipps added. She said the Shisler had created a faulty memory. It’s a very human response, she said. “It is not their fault,” she added.

But Gerry Shisler insists that’s not true. He contends Petschow has learned how to manipulate the legal system and that he’s “snowed” his attorneys.

“I saw Jeremy Petschow in my house, in the basement,” Shisler told Judge Theresa Cisneros. “He’s the individual who took the shots at me and my wife.”

Shisler said he never saw Brandon Warren that night.

As for the gunshot residue found on Warren’s clothing, Shisler said outside the courtroom that Warren had been at a shooting range earlier that week and might have been wearing the same clothes when he was arrested.

There was a brief funny moment this morning during the otherwise serious first-degree murder trial of Fort Carson soldier Jomar Falu-Vives.

In the middle of some testimony by Colorado Springs Police Det. Brad Pratt,  the lead investigator in the case, a ringtone began trilling, somewhere in the vicinity of the judge’s bench.

“I apologize,” said 4th Judicial District Judge Thomas L. Kennedy. “I’m going to have to hold myself in contempt.”

Laughter broke out and testimony resumed.

Well.  I’ll be heading out over the lunch hour today to pick up a copy of Rolling Stone magazine (something I confess to not doing much since the days of Hunter S. Thompson.)

A long awaited story on a series of murders by Fort Carson soldiers is in this month’s issue. The story, by writer L. Christopher Smith, takes a look at some of the same events covered by the Gazette’s own Dave Phillips in his two-part series “Casualties of War.” See link here: http://www.gazette.com/articles/iframe-59065-eastridge-audio.html

A tip of the fedora to local defense lawyer Ed Farry, who told me about the story appearing in this month’s edition when I ran into him this morning in the courthouse elevator.

Farry was a court-appointed attorney for Louis Bressler, a former Fort Carson soldier who was sentenced in March to 60 years in prison for his role in two murders. See link here:

http://www.gazette.com/articles/iraq-49167-vet-killing.html

“Who’s on the cover?” I asked.

“Shakira,” he replied then quipped, “They promised me the cover, but it’s Shakira.”

Here’s a link to the cover: http://www.rollingstone.com/issue1091

Jurors again saw a brief video clip today of Jomar Falu-Vives firing his AK-47 at the South Rampart Range shooting range west of Colorado Springs.

Prosecutors first showed the clip during opening statements in the first-degree murder trial of Vives, a 25-year-old Iraq War veteran accused in a double homicide.

This time, however, prosecutors entered the clip as a piece of evidence and explained how police obtained it.

On July 6, 2008, a Colorado Springs police officer responding to a report of shots fired in the 1800 block of South Chelton Road made a traffic stop. He noticed a gun and a digital camera in the car.

While looking at the camera, the officer saw pictures of three men holding weapons. One of them was Falu-Vives, who was holding the AK-47. In the background was a dark SUV.

All of those elements matched the description of the vehicle and weapon that police had been looking for in two separate drive-by shootings. Prosecutors contend ballistics tests later showed that Vives’ AK-47 was the weapon used in both shootings.

Det. Brad Pratt, the lead detective in the case, told jurors how he was able to later recover those images plus the video clips.

Beside the video clip plus still photos of Falu-Vives firing his weapon, the jurors also saw a brief clip of co-defendant Rudy Torres-Gandarilla doing the same. Because of a computer glitch, there was no sound to accompany the videos.

Torres-Gandarilla pleaded guilty to being an accessory in both drive-by shootings and is serving a 12-year-prison sentence. He is expected to testify later in the trial.

Testimony resumes tomorrow. Stay with the Sidebar blog for more details.  

The fallout from Colorado Springs voters’ rejection of ballot item 2C turned up in a court hearing late Wednesday.

That’s when the trustees of a pension fund for 75 city bus drivers won a temporary restraining order to block any transfer of the fund over the next 10 days.

Even before the final votes were counted, the pension trustees were anticipating the tax measure’s defeat. They filed a complaint Tuesday seeking a court ruling on whether sponsorship of the plan can be transferred to the city.

Currently, the fund is sponsored by First Transit Inc., the contractor for bus services in Colorado Springs.

City officials have said they would have to slash 63,000 hours of bus service if 2C failed to pass. The 4-member board of trustees of the Springs Transit Company Employee’s Retirement and Disability Plan fear that means the city will discontinue its contract with First Transit.

If that happens and the city takes over as sponsor of the pension fund, the trustees are concerned about what will happen to their benefits.

The pension fund was established in 1973. It was funded by a combination of employer and employee contributions.

According to the trustees’ complaint, the plan calls for a benefit of $50 per month for every year that a driver works for the city. Thus a bus driver with 20 years experience would get a pension of $1,000 per month by age 62.

However, the complaint claims the pension’s assets are underfunded and will fall short by $5 million of the amount needed to pay those benefits.

The city attorney’s office did not oppose the temporary restraining order, according to an e-mail supplied by Ed Gleason, a lawyer for the pension trustees.

A lawyer for First Transit called the move premature because the city has not moved to actually cut the transit service or end its contract.

Fourth Judicial District Judge David Prince granted the temporary restraining order. The court set a Nov. 13 hearing on whether any further action is required.

A cry for help or buyer’s remorse?

That’s the choice being posed to a 4^th Judicial District jury that began hearing testimony today in a sex assault trial.

Defendant Larry Sims is charged with three counts of sexual assault.

In opening arguments, Deputy District Attorney Brien Cecil said Sims is accused of forcing a woman to have oral and anal sex.

Police were called to the home on a 911 call where the line was left open. Cecil said that call was the victim’s “cry out for help.”

Deputy Public Defender Cynthia Jones outlined a very different scenario.

She told the jury that Sims and the woman – who had a child together – were having relationship issues. On the night in question, the woman was angry that Sims had failed to return home with her from a party. She was also mad when he returned home late and drunk, Jones said.

The sex they had was consensual, Jones said.

“At the end of the day, this is a case of buyer’s remorse,” Jones said.

Judge David Prince is presiding over the trial.

Attorneys for a Fort Carson soldier accused in a double homicide today questioned if a prosecution witness had confused the two drive-by shootings in which their client has been charged.

Sarah Reyes had testified that she was in a car when Pfc. Jomar Falu-Vives fired his AK-47 out a rear window, seriously wounding an Army lieutenant on May 26, 2008.

Falu-Vives, 25, is also charged in a June 6, 2008 drive-by shooting in which Amairany Cervantes, 18, and Cesar Ramirez-Ibanez, 20, were killed while they were hanging garage sale signs in southeast Colorado Springs.

His defense attorneys contend police were quick to free other people who were in those vehicles once they had identified Falu-Vives as the shooter.

Ernest Marquez, attorney for Falu-Vives, asked if she had lied to police in July when she told a detective she didn’t know about either shooting. Reyes said yes.

Marquez pointed out that she changed her story in August 2008 when she told a detective in late August 2008 that she was in the car during the first drive-by shooting in which Army Lt. Zachary Zsody was wounded.

Marquez asked, “You heard that if I blame Jomar, I’ll get to go home too?”

“No. I just told the truth,” Reyes replied.

Marquez asked if she told the detective that she saw “two kids” shot while they were hanging yard signs. According to Marquez, when the detective corrected her Reyes said, “oh right.”

Marquez asked if she had gotten information from her brother, who had told police he was a passenger in the second drive-by.

“Your brother told you,” he said.

“Sir I didn’t know anything about my brother’s case,” she replied.

Reyes testified while handcuffed and wearing a blue El Paso County jail uniform. She is currently being held on an unrelated traffic charge of driving under restraint.

Testimony continues this afternoon. Stay with the Sidebar blog for more trial coverage.

A woman testified Tuesday that she saw Jomar Falu-Vives fire the shots that wounded an Army lieutenant during a May 26, 2008 drive-by shooting.

Sarah Reyes said she was in the front passenger seat of the car when Falu-Vives, a 25-year-old Fort Carson soldier, starting firing out the back window with his AK-47.

Reyes said it was the second time Falu-Vives had opened fire that night. The first time he didn’t hit anybody, she said.

“What are you doing?” Reyes said she asked Falu-Vives after the first round of shots. She took off the iPod that she had been listening to.

“Calm down,” she said he replied.

Her testimony came as Falu-Vives’ trial on first-degree murder and attempted murder entered its second week.

Reyes is one of four witnesses whom prosecutors say will testify that they saw the defendant fire his assault rifle in two separate drive-by shootings.

The second drive-by on June 6, 2008 left two people dead.

In the spring of 2008, prosecutors said Reyes had been dating an Army medic named Alonso Hernandez. “Turtle” as his friends called him, introduced her to his other Army friends Rudy Torres-Gandarilla and Falu-Vives.

On May 26, 2008, Reyes said she was part of a group of friends who went to play pool at a place called Corner Pocket.

She left there in a white Chrysler that belonged to Torres-Gandarilla. She said he drove while Falu-Vives sat in the back seat with his AK-47.

After Falu-Vives fired off the first set of shots, Reyes said they stopped briefly at his apartment and then headed toward a target practice range near Garden of the Gods. They never got there.

Instead, they drove along Monterey Road near Flintshire Street, where she said Falu-Vives again opened fire.

Reyes testified that she looked out the back window of the car.

“I see people falling down…on the sidewalk,” she said. Two shots hit Army Lt. Zachary A. Zsody. One bullet hit him in the left pelvis and shattered his leg.

After dropping Falu-Vives back at his apartment, Reyes said she returned to Fort Carson with Torres-Gandarilla.

Before they entered the base, they picked up the shell cases off the floor and back seat of his car.

Torres-Gandarilla, who also is expected to testify, is serving a 12-year prison sentence after pleaded guilty to being an accessory in both drive-by shootings.

Testimony resumes today.

Trial notes….Since testifying Monday, Szody had remained in the court room to listen to other witnesses….Several members of the Pine Creek High School law class attended the trial on Tuesday. They heard several witnesses describing hearing shots and a woman screaming during the double homicide on June 6, 2008.

A young woman testified today that she saw Jomar Falu-Vives fire the shots that wounded an Army lieutenant during a May 26, 2008 drive-by shooting.

Sarah Reyes said she was in the front passenger seat of the car when Falu-Vives, a 25-year-old Fort Carson soldier, starting firing out the back window with his AK-47.

Reyes said it was the second time Falu-Vives had opened fire that night. The first time he didn’t hit any body, she said.

“What are you doing?” Reyes said she asked Falu-Vives after the first round of shots.

“Calm down,” she said he replied.

Her testimony came as Falu-Vives trial on first-degree murder and attempted murder entered its second week Tuesday.

Reyes is one of four witnesses whom prosecutors said will testify that they saw the defendant fire his assault rifle in two separate drive-by shootings.

The second drive-by on June 6, 2008 left two people dead.

Stay with the Sidebar blog for more details.