{"id":106197,"date":"2016-03-16T14:53:04","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T20:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bill-would-make-tampering-with-a-body-a-felony\/"},"modified":"2016-03-16T14:53:04","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T20:53:04","slug":"bill-would-make-tampering-with-a-body-a-felony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bill-would-make-tampering-with-a-body-a-felony\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill would make tampering with a body a felony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Elaine
Elaine Hatfield Hall speaks about her missing son, Dylan Redwine, in this 2012 photo. Dylan\u2019s remains were found months later, and in the ensuing years Elaine Redwine has become an advocate for laws that protect victims. She testified Monday in Denver in support of a bill that would make it a felony to tamper with a body.<\/span>SHAUN STANLEY\/Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 State lawmakers on Monday advanced a measure that would make tampering with a body a felony \u2013 an effort strongly supported and advocated for by the mother of Dylan Redwine.<\/p>\n

The bipartisan bill is being pushed by prosecutors and the families of murder victims, who say tampering with a body should carry a stricter penalty than tampering with evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has devastated our family, but it also has made us aware of the laws that need to change to protect the victims rather than the criminals,\u201d Elaine Hatfield Hall, Dylan Redwine\u2019s mother, explained Monday with tears in her eyes.<\/p>\n

Dylan had been on a court-ordered visit with his father, Mark Redwine, on Nov. 18, 2012, when he disappeared. Dylan was 13 at the time.<\/p>\n

In June 2013, some of Dylan\u2019s remains were found about three miles from his father\u2019s home in Vallecito.<\/p>\n

In August, the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office announced it had identified Mark Redwine as a person of interest in the case and that Dylan\u2019s cause of death had been changed from \u201cunknown\u201d to \u201chomicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case remains unsolved.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the incident, as well as similar cases throughout the state, lawmakers have worked to address the issue of tampering with bodies.<\/p>\n

The bill targets someone who assists a killer with moving or disposing of a body after a crime. Such involvement is a misdemeanor in the state.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the bill believe that by making the crime a felony \u2013 separate of other crimes such as tampering with physical evidence and being an accessory to a crime \u2013 then law enforcement and prosecutors would have additional tools to seek justice.<\/p>\n

The measure passed the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee unanimously. It has made its way through the Senate. and now is heading to the full House for debate.<\/p>\n

Observers were worried about the fate of the bill, as it was assigned to State Affairs rather than Judiciary. In the Senate, the legislation was assigned to Judiciary.<\/p>\n

Leadership often uses State Affairs as a \u201ckill committee\u201d to end unfavorable legislation. When asked why the bill was sent to State Affairs, House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Boulder, said she heard concerns about the legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we wanted to do was make sure there was plenty of scrutiny around that bill, to take a really good objective look at what it did,\u201d Hullinghorst said Monday as her colleagues took testimony on the bill.<\/p>\n

Few objections were raised during the hearing.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Criminal Defense Bar believes the measure is unnecessary, pointing out that felonies exist for tampering with physical evidence and being an accessory to a crime.<\/p>\n

But the sponsors of the legislation say it is a matter of adding weight to the horrific and traumatic crime that has become a \u201cdark subject\u201d in the Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe penalty now would be similar to tampering with a cellphone to delete evidence out of its memory,\u201d said Rep. Polly Lawrence, R-Littleton. \u201cIt seems that tampering with a deceased human body should carry a much harsher penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Redwine\u2019s mother offers tearful testimony on \u2018dark subject\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[94,519,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-106197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-dylan-redwine","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106197"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=106197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}