{"id":32626,"date":"2023-07-28T22:07:46","date_gmt":"2023-07-29T04:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bail-set-for-two-la-plata-county-murder-defendants-following-colorado-supreme-court-ruling\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:01:13","slug":"bail-set-for-two-la-plata-county-murder-defendants-following-colorado-supreme-court-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bail-set-for-two-la-plata-county-murder-defendants-following-colorado-supreme-court-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Bail set for two La Plata County murder defendants following Colorado Supreme Court ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"District
District Judge Suzanne Carlson allowed prosecution to proceed against Timur Urunov, 30, who has been charged with two counts in connection with a child predator sex sting conducted in April by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Durango. Carlson also agreed to reduce Urunov\u2019s bail from $100,000 to $50,000. <\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Judges across Colorado are now having to set bail in first-degree murder cases, including two in La Plata County, after a state Supreme Court ruling in June that eliminated an option to hold the defendants without bail.<\/p>\n

Damitre Burch, a teenager accused of killing a 21-year-old Speedway clerk in Bayfield in August 2021, was set at $5 million. Luis Raul Valenzuela, who is accused of stabbing and killing <\/a>a pregnant 28-year old woman south of Durango, appeared in court in June and had his bail set at $2 million. They were previously being held without bail.<\/p>\n

In a bail hearing earlier this month, Burch\u2019s public defender, John Moran, sparred with Deputy District Attorney Mac Dudley over what constituted a fair bail for Burch.<\/p>\n

The discourse brought into focus the debate occurring in courtrooms across the state, including in the 6th Judicial District.<\/p>\n

Judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys must weigh the need to compel defendants \u2013 even first-degree murder suspects \u2013 to return to court against their Eighth Amendment constitutional rights that protect against excessive bail. And the cases that spur this debate are those in which defendants had previously been held without bail, on the basis that it was highly likely they would be found guilty of murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was unprovoked murder of a stranger, with a common weapon \u2013 a knife,\u201d Dudley said in arguing for a $5 million bail during Burch\u2019s hearing. \u201cHow does court set a bond to protect the safety of our community from that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old has limited resources, Moran said in defense of his client, who has no ties beyond his family in La Plata County. Moran argued that Burch has \u201ca third or fourth grade appreciation of the world\u201d and perceived Farmington as a distant and \u201cexotic\u201d location.<\/p>\n

District Judge Jeffrey Wilson set Burch\u2019s bail at $5 million cash or surety.<\/p>\n

\"Jeffrey
Jeffrey R. Wilson, chief judge of the 6th Judicial District, listens during a trial in 2021. Wilson set bail for murder suspect Damitre Burch at $5 million bond or surety last week. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
A new set of rules<\/div>\n

In Colorado, all criminal defendants were afforded the opportunity to make bail, save for those charged with capital offenses in certain circumstances. First-degree murder was one of the few crimes for which someone could receive the death penalty before the state Legislature abolished capital punishment in 2020.<\/p>\n

On June 20, the Colorado Supreme Court handed down a decision in People v. Smith<\/a>, finding that because capital punishment no longer exists, capital offenses no longer exist either. The decision took away the option to hold defendants facing first-degree murder charges without bail, and made all defendants eligible for release pending trial.<\/p>\n

Of the six pending murder cases in the 6th Judicial District, four defendants are charged with first-degree murder. Of those four, only two \u2013 Burch and Valenzuela \u2013 had been held without bail.<\/p>\n

In the wake of last month\u2019s ruling, some state judges have set extraordinarily high bails \u2013 one as high as $100 million in cash<\/a> \u2013 for first-degree murder defendants that had previously been held without bail.<\/p>\n

The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution<\/a> says \u201cexcessive bail shall not be required,\u201d and some lawyers, including Burch\u2019s attorney Moran, have argued that out-of-reach bails are unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

The intention of bail is to ensure a defendant\u2019s return to court as well as protect the safety of the public. Judges may take into account a host of individual factors, such as a defendant\u2019s financial status, access to resources, community support, potential sentence and past criminal history when considering what constitutes a fair bail.<\/p>\n

\"Champagne\"
Champagne<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWhen we\u2019re talking about setting bails this high, the idea is to make sure that they (defendants) would come back to court if they left and have enough of a stake in the game that they wouldn\u2019t really, truly be able to leave because it\u2019d be leaving so much money on the table,\u201d said District Attorney Christian Champagne.<\/p>\n

But in Burch\u2019s case, defense attorney Moran argued that $5 million is \u201ceffectively a no-bond hold\u201d given Burch\u2019s limited financial means.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntentionally setting bail so high as to be unattainable is simply a less honest method,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n

The question remaining is whether the people of Colorado desire an option for first-degree murder suspects to be held without bail. Given the potential sentence they could face, defendants charged with capital crimes could be held without bail because they had an enormous incentive to flea; Burch could face up to 40 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Some lawmakers have called for a special legislative session<\/a> to change state law allowing for no-bond holds in murder cases. But Gov. Jared Polis has said this won\u2019t happen because it would take a constitutional amendment voted upon by the people to allow no-bond hold in noncapital cases \u2013 something that could not happen until the 2024 general election.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sort of a farce\u2019<\/div>\n

Pending a change in state law or an amendment to the state Constitution, prosecutors hoping to keep defendants locked up are stuck arguing for high bails that would effectively constitute a no-bond hold, while defense attorneys argue the practice is not legal.<\/p>\n

Champagne, who has yet to delve in-depth into the matter, said he favors a more transparent method of holding dangerous defendants in jail.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sort of a farce,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 I would rather see somebody just be told that, \u2018You cannot be released on bond\u2019 than setting a bond that\u2019s $25 million. Because it\u2019s just a silly game that we\u2019re playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In setting Burch\u2019s $5 million bail, Wilson said that given the overwhelming evidence against Burch \u2013 the murder was captured on security cameras \u2013 there is a significant danger to the community.<\/p>\n

Wilson also noted that while Burch appears to have little financial means, it is possible that the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, of which Burch is a member, has significant financial resources and could opt to help him.<\/p>\n

Burch would need to procure $750,000 \u2013 15% of the $5 million bail \u2013 to secure a surety that would release him from jail.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he might not have anywhere to go, the court sees no reason why he\u2019d abide by rules,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

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

law sparked statewide discussion about purpose of bond<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1078,133,168,28,1025,1131],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-32626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-6th-judicial-district","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-law-and-justice","tag-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-people"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32626","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=32626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81867,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32626\/revisions\/81867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32626"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=32626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}