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DENVER (AP) — A man was convicted of murder Monday for stabbing five people to death in a Denver bar during a botched robbery three years ago, making him eligible for the death penalty.
Jurors returned the guilty verdict for Dexter Lewis after deliberating for 10 hours over three days in a case that has been overshadowed by the trial of Colorado theater shooter James Holmes in suburban Denver.
Lewis and his relatives showed no emotion, but the families of the victims began crying as the verdict was read, The Denver Post reported (http://dpo.st/1MYiI54 ).
Prosecutors say Lewis went to the bar with three other men in October 2012 and stabbed the bar's owner, Young Suk Fero, 53, and four customers — Daria M. Pohl, 21, of Denver; Kellene Fallon, 44, of Denver; Ross Richter, 29, of Overland Park, Kansas; and Tereasa Beesley, 45, of Denver.
In the case, brothers Joseph and Lynell Hill pleaded guilty under deals with prosecutors and received lengthy sentences. The fourth man, Demarea Harris, was a confidential informant at the time for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and reported the slayings to authorities. He was never charged in the case.
Harris and Lynell Hill testified that Lewis stabbed all five people. Joseph Hill refused to testify.
Lewis could face the death penalty, but the last time a Denver jury chose to execute someone was in 1986.
Colorado has three men on death row — all convicted in suburban Arapahoe County where Holmes was tried — but the state has not executed anyone since 1997.
Holmes was convicted of killing 12 people in the 2012 movie theater attack, but jurors could not agree on whether to sentence him to death, which means he will be formally sentenced to life in prison later this month.
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