Steak Dinner After 16 Years In Prison For Murder He Didn’t Commit
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
Christopher Tomlinson
“I got locked up when I was 33 and I’m 51 now. There’s a lot for me to catch up on,” said Robert Dewey after he was set free by Mesa District Court Judge Brian Flynn in Grand Junction on Monday.
He told KUSA TV: “I just kind of want to kick back, ride my bike, and be with my family.”
His motorcycle connections, drug use and an earlier conviction for stealing a gun may have made it seem possible that he had been involved in the rape and murder of 19-year-old Jacie Taylor in 1994. Giving police a false name didn’t help.
His 1996 conviction fell apart when DNA evidence used to convict him came under scrutiny by the DNA Justice Review Project.
Now it appears Taylor was murdered by Douglas Thames, who is serving a life sentence for a 1989 murder in Fort Collins. Dewey’s original defense lawyer argued that Palisade police had not investigated potential suspects. It turns out that included Thames, according to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, who lived right across the street from Taylor.
Defense lawyer Danyel Joffe, who handled his appeal for the past 11 years, said it was too soon to say whether her client would seek damages from police and prosecutors.
social worker will help him deal with a world of mobile phones and texting.
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