Chris's Crime Forum

Assault on Chase brought to life

BOULDER, Colo. — Susannah Chase didn’t immediately collapse to the ground after being struck in the head with a baseball bat and may have struggled against her attacker as she was dragged away, a forensic expert testified Tuesday in the murder trial of Diego Olmos Alcalde.

Ross Gardner, a crime-scene and blood-pattern analyst, pointed to various crime-scene photos projected on a screen and took the jury on a bloody journey down 18th Street in Boulder.

“This is where the bloodletting began,” he said of the southwest corner of 18th and Spruce streets.

Elliptical-shaped bloodstains at the corner indicating blood in motion — what Gardner called “impact bloodstains” — signified where Chase was first struck, he testified.

Gardner also pointed out round drops of blood at the site, an indication that Chase was upright for some time with blood dripping straight down from her body.

He said he initially expected to see more blood on the ground, but after examining Chase’s blood-soaked sweatshirt, he surmised that much of it had been absorbed by her clothing.

Gardner told the jury he wasn’t able to determine from which direction the 23-year-old University of Colorado student was attacked.

The forensic expert went on to say that Chase likely struggled in a questionable state of consciousness as she was moved south down the sidewalk by her attacker.

“She is not walking, but she’s not on the ground either,” he told the jury. “Some portion of her is dragging.”

Cast-off bloodstain patterns along the sidewalk were a sign that Chase may have been moving her hand — and possibly fighting back — against her attacker, Gardner testified.

Finally, more elliptical bloodstains near the curb halfway down the block suggested to Gardner that Chase was struck yet again — though probably not with the baseball bat this time — before being dragged into a vehicle and driven away.

Alcalde, 39, is accused of beating and raping Chase in the early-morning hours of Dec. 21, 1997, and then dumping her in an alley about a block away. She died the next day.

He was connected to the crime more than 10 years after it happened when investigators said they matched his DNA to semen found inside Chase at the time of her death.

Prosecutors, attempting to cement their case against Alcalde on Tuesday, called to the stand several witnesses to tell jurors what happened to the car prosecutors say the defendant was driving at the time Chase was killed.

Denver police Lt. John Macdonald said he saw Alcalde driving a blue 1979 Datsun 280Z in Denver on Jan. 16, 1998, when it was towed and impounded.

Denver Sheriff’s Capt. Craig Meyer testified that the Datsun, with a license plate that was connected to Alcalde, was sold by the city at auction shortly thereafter.

Alice Corns, president of Englewood-based Colorado Auto & Parts, testified that she paid $100 for the Datsun in March 1998. She said the car might have been crushed immediately or it may have sat at her business for up to 120 days as a source of replacement parts.

The defense, meanwhile, tried to poke holes in the integrity of the police work done in the case.

With Boulder police Detective Chuck Heidel on the stand, attorney Mary Claire Mulligan went through a long list of alleged investigative oversights and mistakes by police.

She mentioned that the crime scene at the corner of 18th and Spruce streets wasn’t secured until 10 a.m. — more than six hours after Chase was found in the alley.

Mulligan criticized the police for taking two rolls of film at the crime scene that were either overexposed or defective.

She asked about a shoe print at the scene that was never cast or molded.

“There’s no way for us to know if it had anything to do with this crime scene or not?” Mulligan asked. “We have no way of attempting to get more information about it at this point.”

Heidel agreed.

Mulligan focused on several cigarette butts at the crime scene that were never collected by police, including one that was shown in a crime-scene photo lying next to a collection of blood.

“That cigarette butt is right next to several patterns of suspected blood spatter,” Mulligan said.

“That’s correct,” the detective responded.

“That cigarette butt was never collected by anyone at the Boulder Police Department,” she said.

“That’s correct,” he said.

The attorney came down on Heidel particularly hard for not learning until this year about an unknown male DNA profile found on the handle of the baseball bat at the center of the case.

“No one at (the Colorado Bureau of Investigation) told you anything about the minor male profile?” Mulligan asked the detective.

“No,” Heidel responded.

“No one told you about it in 2003, or 2004, or 2005, or 2006, or 2007, or even 2008,” Mulligan said.

Heidel agreed, acknowledging that police didn’t learn about the profile until Alcalde’s lawyers went to the CBI to inquire about it earlier this year.

The defense has suggested during the trial that the unknown DNA sample on the bat handle belongs to the person who killed Chase.
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Trial continues in '97
CU slaying

Stamford (AP) - Jurors in the trial of a man accused of bludgeoning to death a 23-year-old University of Colorado student heard testimony from two women who said he told a story similar to how the victim died.

Thirty-nine-year-old Diego Olmos Alcalde is charged with first-degree murder, sexual assault and kidnapping in the December 1997 death of Susannah Chase of Stamford, Conn.

Ona Bayers and Sonci Francis testified Wednesday that Olmos Alcalde spoke at the time of bludgeoning a man to death with a baseball bat outside a bar. That's how Chase died.

Bayers is Olmos Alcalde's half-sister, and Francis is an ex-girlfriend of the defendant.

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CHASE TRIAL BLOG: Trial breaks for day, lawyers discussing jury instructions



BOULDER, Colo. — Camera reporter John Aguilar is covering Diego Olmos Alcalde's murder trial and will be filing live updates throughout the day from the courtroom in Boulder District Court.

Alcalde, 39, is charged with beating and raping 23-year-old University of Colorado senior Susannah Chase on Dec. 21, 1997 and leaving her in a Boulder alley to die.

Update: 4:23 p.m.

Boulder District Judge James Klein has sent the jury home a little early this afternoon.

Defense attorney Steven Jacobson said the witness he was going to call next had left for the day and he needs to start fresh in the morning.

The court is using the final hour of the day to go over jury instructions.

Update: 3:54 p.m.

CBI agent: Defendant's pubic hair not found on Chase

Colorodo Bureau of Investigation forensic expert Sherry Murphy took the stand and testified that she found only Susannah Chase's pubic hair in the examination kit results given to her.

Prosecutor Amy Okubo challenged Murphy by asking her if DNA isn't a better indicator of whether two people have been together.

She also asked Murphy if it's possible that hairs could have fallen off Chase as she was being worked on at the hospital.

Murphy said it was possible.

Update: 3:15 p.m.

Neighbor heard male voices outside her home

A neighbor who lived at the southwest corner of 18th and Spruce streets -- Judith Sutter -- was called as the defense's first witness.

She testified that she saw a man on 18th Street staring at her as she and her husband left for a house party at the home next door. She said it was around 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 20, 1997.

Sutter told the jury that she returned home three hours later and went to sleep.

She estimated that a couple of hours later -- in the early morning hours of Dec. 21, 1997 -- she was awoken by voices outside. She acknowledged telling police she heard three voices.

"It definitely sounded like male voices," Sutter testified.

She said she heard a car start up, two car doors close and a vehicle pull away.

Update: 2:40 p.m.

Prosecution rests, victim describes attack

The prosecution rested its case against Diego Olmos Alcalde Wednesday afternoon after presenting its final witness -- Ann Marie Taylor.

Taylor, a 29-year-old Cheyenne resident, testified after lunch that she called out for her father after Alcalde attacked her in the parking lot of her apartment building in Cheyenne.

"Daddy, he hurt me," she cried out, according to her testimony.

She told the jury that as she began getting out of her car, Alcalde approached her and acted drunk and confused and asked her for directions to his hotel.

As she motioned to where the hotel was located, Taylor said Alcalde jumped her.

"When I turned my head, that's when he jumped on me and pushed me down inside the vehicle," she testified. "As soon as I turned, he just snapped. He didn't seem drunk anymore, he didn't seem lost. He was quick and sharp and focused."

Breathing heavily, Taylor told the jury Alcalde grabbed her throat and held her down in her Mazda Miata.

"I was trying to tell him to stop, please don't," she said.

Taylor said she managed to honk the horn and Alcalde said: "You just had to go f**kin do that, didn't you?"

Alcalde was holding her neck tightly, she said.

"A lot of pressure?" prosecutor Ryan Brackley queried.

"I couldn't breathe," she said.

Taylor testified that Alcalde pulled her out of her car and began dragging her across the pavement. She said she struggled and got scrapes on her body.

"He was trying to hold me, to contain me, and I was trying to getting away," she testified.

Taylor told the jury Alcalde dragged her behind a fence to a grassy area and held her down, his hands on her throat.

"I thought he was going to kill me," she said.

Taylor said she fought back and tried to grab Alcalde's genitals. He suddenly let go of her, she said.

"He just let go -- he just stopped," she testified.

She didn't realize that her brother and father had emerged from her apartment unit and that Alcalde had begun heading for his car.

After she cried out, Taylor said her father ran after Alcalde and tried to pull him out of his car but was unable to.

She said she later saw Alcalde that evening and identified him as the man who attacked her.

Alcalde was arrested and convicted for the attack on Taylor and served seven years in a Wyoming prison. The jury was not informed of that.

Brackley then told the judge: "The people rest."

The defense is expected to begin its case shortly.

Update: 1:59 p.m.

Jury down one member, no reason given for departure

A male juror in the Diego Olmos Alcalde has been dismissed.

Boulder District Judge James Klein didn't give a reason why.

Nine women and six men entered the courtroom this afternoon after a lunch break.

Three of the jurors are alternates.

Ann Marie Taylor, the woman at the center of Diego Alcalde's 2000 conviction for kidnapping, is back on the stand.

Update: 12:02 p.m.

Kidnapping victim describes being followed

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Witnesses recant stories about other Chase suspects
Closing arguments in murder trial scheduled for Friday


BOULDER, Colo. — Two former members of now-defunct Boulder gang KSR — or Keep Suckers Running — closed out testimony at the trial of Diego Olmos Alcalde on Thursday by telling the jury they lied to police when they said they knew who was involved in the beating death of Susannah Chase nearly 12 years ago.

Billy Stewart testified that his statements to police — claiming his friend Gabriel David East appeared at his house at 2507 Spruce St. in the early-morning hours of Dec. 21, 1997, covered in blood and asking for a place to hide — were untrue.

His account of East trying to rob a man outside a Boulder bar the previous evening and then beating him up — only to later find out his victim was actually a woman — was also made up, he testified.

“The majority of things I told the officers at the time were untruthful,” Stewart said.

Chase, a 23-year-old University of Colorado student who was just a few months away from graduation, was beaten with a baseball bat at the corner of 18th and Spruce streets and dumped in a nearby alley on Dec. 21, 1997.

Alcalde, 39, was arrested more than 10 years later on suspicion of killing Chase after police said forensic evidence — his sperm inside the victim — tied him to the crime.

Stewart told the jury he was facing 16 years in prison for cocaine possession and he wanted to weave a tale for cops to follow on the high-profile murder that might buy him some leniency in his own case.

“I bet it could be a fictional book at this point,” he said of his statements to police back in 1998, drawing laughter from jurors. “I was trying to get less time — I was 18 years old.”

Defense attorney Steve Jacobson challenged Stewart on the stand by pointing out that his first claim to authorities that his statements were untrue wasn’t made until just three weeks ago.

“That’s why I’m here today — to put this thing to bed,” Stewart replied. “I apologized to my friends for making embellishments and dragging them into this.”

Stewart was one of four witnesses defense attorneys put on the stand Thursday before announcing they were ready to rest their case. Testimony at the trial lasted for nine full days — all but one of those days featuring witnesses for the prosecution.

Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday morning.

Before Stewart took the stand, East testified that he never told anyone that he had beaten up someone outside a bar in Boulder in December 1997.

The defense mentioned East in its opening statement as a possible suspect in the case whom police didn’t adequately investigate.

East testified that as a young man, he ran around in the KSR gang, tagging buildings and committing petty crimes.

“Yes, I was an idiot,” he said about his youthful indiscretions.

Police picked him up after the Chase murder and jailed him on an unrelated warrant, East told the jury. Then they began interrogating him about the Chase case, he said.

East testified that he told police he could point out some “hippies” who hung out on the Pearl Street Mall as possible suspects in Chase’s death.

“I was a dumb kid; I wanted to see if I could get myself out of trouble,” East said. “I was just making things up.”

He said he just wanted to be released from jail so he could party on New Year’s Eve.

East’s testimony often elicited laughter from the courtroom and jury, as he chuckled and expressed incredulity at some of the stories he had made up.

East testified that he even told officers he would take them to the mall and identify people he thought might have had a role.

“I had nothing to show them — I was scared,” East testified.

“You didn’t find any hippie that had killed Susannah Chase?” prosecutor Amy Okubo asked.

“No, ma’am, I’m sorry,” East said. “We were dumb kids.”

Police took swabs from his cheek and combed his car for hairs and fibers, East testified.

“They did everything they possibly could have,” he told the jury.

“So you were never arrested for the murder of Susannah Chase?” Okubo asked.

“No, because I didn’t do it; I didn’t have anything to do with it,” he replied.

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Guilty Of Beating, Raping Susannah Chas

BOULDER, Colo. -- A man accused of beating and raping a University of Colorado student in 1997 was found guilty on all counts Friday afternoon, ending her family's 12-year quest for answers.

Diego Olmos Alcalde, 39, was found guilty of first-degree murder, sexual assault and kidnapping in the death of 23-year-old Susannah Chase.

It took the jury only five hours to deliberate the case that had been cold for more than a decade.

Alcalde will be sentenced on Monday and will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Prosecutors said Olmos Alcalde's DNA was found inside Chase and that DNA on a baseball bat from Olmos Alcalde's ex-girlfriend links the Chilean native to the murder.

Defense attorneys argued prosecutors failed to pursue other suspects. They also said Olmos Alcalde had consensual sex with Chase, which explains why his DNA was on her body.

Prosecutors said the claim that the sex was consensual is "preposterous."

Chase, a senior from Stamford, Conn., was attacked on a street corner and dumped in an alley while walking home alone from a pizza parlor.

Olmos Alcalde was linked to the cold case last year through a DNA sample taken from him after he was convicted in Wyoming for kidnapping. Olmos Alcalde had denied knowing Chase or having been to Boulder in decades, but that changed as the trial began with Olmos Alcalde claiming he had consensual sex with Chase.

"The defendant would like you to believe that he was Romeo out there, suave," prosecutor Amy Okubo told jurors before they were given the case. Okubo said it was unlikely that Chase would have met Olmos Alcalde and had sex with him, since she had spent the last three days of her life attending a graduation ceremony, buying Christmas presents and spending the night at a hotel with her boyfriend and his family.

Okubo said Chase wasn't a reckless woman who would have random sex with someone.

Prosecutors said the murder weapon, a child-size baseball bat, belonged to Olmos Alcalde's ex-girlfriend. They said the ex-girlfriend's DNA was found on the bat, linking Olmos Alcalde to the beginning and end of the crime.

Defense attorneys had argued that partial fingerprints and the DNA profile of another male also were found on the bat handle, suggesting that the real killer was still on the loose.

Okubo said investigators have checked the DNA profile with a national database and came up with no suspects, and that the other set of DNA likely came from a child.

"The defendant wants you to believe astronomical coincidences are out there," she said. "That the bat directly connected to... the defendant's girlfriend was used by some unknown person to kill Susannah Chase. That's impossible. It's preposterous."

Defense attorney Mary Claire Mulligan said nurses and doctors who treated Chase indicated at the time that there was no evidence of sexual assault. She also told jurors that Chase's jeans had no blood on them, despite the bloodiness of the crime scene and prosecutors' allegation that the assailant put the woman's jeans on Chase's body after the sexual assault.

"They assumed that whoever had sex with her must have killed her, so they focused on that and they put on blinders to everything else," Mulligan told jurors.

During 10 days of testimony, jurors heard from Olmos Alcalde's half-sister, Ona Bayers, and his ex-girlfriend, Sonci Francis. Both women told jurors that days after Chase's death, Olmos Alcalde described a similar attack in which the victim was a man he got into a fight with at a bar.

Jurors also heard from the victim in the Wyoming kidnapping case, who described how Olmos Alcalde in 2000 followed her home, then attacked her in a parking lot and tried to drag her away to a secluded area. Her family, who was nearby, came to her rescue.

Chase had left a pizzeria after an argument with her boyfriend and was attacked a block from her home on Dec. 21, 1997. She died the next day in a hospital -- the same day she was supposed to fly home to Connecticut for Christmas.

Olmos Alcalde was not among the suspects just after the slaying, when police interviewed hundreds of people, including Chase's boyfriend, and took DNA samples from at least 50 men. No matches were made and leads in the case eventually fizzled out.

DNA was first collected from Olmos Alcalde in 2001 after the Wyoming kidnapping conviction.

After years of appeals, a new trial in the Wyoming case and a long wait caused by a backlog of thousands of samples in Wyoming's state lab, Olmos Alcalde's DNA profile was uploaded into a national DNA database in January 2008. He was arrested within days.


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