Cop-killing case brought wide range of penalties

State's high court eyes controversial Auman sentence

Jeff Kass, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, January 15, 2004

Cañon City prison inmate Lisl Auman was expected to "meditate and pray" on candles being lit for her freedom as her felony murder case goes before the state Supreme Court today.

It is certainly a different prayer from the one Gail Rice will intone from suburban Chicago: Her younger brother, Denver police officer Bruce VanderJagt, was killed in 1997 by a skinhead linked to Auman.

"The appeals court, in their decision, made clear Lisl's guilt and responsibility," Rice said Wednesday, "and I hope the Supreme Court does that."

While Auman, VanderJagt and skinhead Matthaeus Jaehnig are the main characters in one of the city's most high-profile cop killings, three others were spliced into that deadly day.

A recent review of their court records reveals a fuller picture of those three lesser cast members, how their lives continue to be strung up by events, and renews questions about Auman's case: The then-21-year-old was handcuffed in a squad car when VanderJagt was shot.

"The oddest thing is that they (the lesser three) can be at home watching the coverage while Lisl's fighting for her life," Auman's stepfather, Rob Auerbach, said Wednesday - although in fact one of the three remains in prison.

The three were Auman's friend Demetria Soriano; Soriano's boyfriend, Dion Gerze; and Steven Duprey.

The five all went to the Jefferson County apartment of Auman's ex-boyfriend. Later, Soriano, Gerze, and Duprey would plead guilty to burglarizing it.

But first, the three left the scene in a black Chevy Cavalier.

Auman and Jaehnig left in a stolen red Trans Am.

It was the difference between life and death, freedom and prison.

As police caught up with the Trans Am, Jaehnig shot at them.

The car chase ended as Jaehnig and Auman fled into the Denver condominiums where Auman was staying with Soriano. Auman then surrendered. Jaehnig went on to kill VanderJagt, then kill himself with VanderJagt's gun.

A jury found Auman guilty of felony murder, which meant that while she did not pull the trigger, she participated in an underlying felony, the burglary, that led to VanderJagt's death.

She got life in prison, no parole; a stark contrast to the terms for the other three.

Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter did review felony murder charges against the other three, said spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough, but there were "things we would have had to prove we couldn't."

A defense against felony murder, for example, is that someone "had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant was armed," according to the statute.

But, Kimbrough said, Auman "was in the car with Jaehnig and the weapon."

Duprey, 29 at the time, was found by police only after a tip. He received the harshest sentence: Four years in prison, to run concurrent with a term for a 1993 theft case, according to court records.

Duprey could not be reached Wednesday. Like Auman, he is incarcerated in a Cañon City prison, according to the corrections department. His court records show numerous, handwritten filings pleading for a break.

"Yes, it's me again," Duprey began one letter from prison addressed to a judge. He continued: "Although I've been a screw up (sic) most of my life and I still have a ways to go before I prove myself differently, I have made some changes in my life. I put in my motions how I was doing Bible studies."

Duprey did get a break of sorts. He was paroled, but violated the terms in September 2002, according to corrections spokeswoman Linda Carroll. He was hauled back to prison for "absconding," going outside his approved jurisdiction or failing to check in, Carroll said.

His next parole hearing is in March, according to Carroll.

Gerze, 22 at the time, has also turned to God, according to his mother. He a family man, the father of three boys, and has a job as a truck driver hauling dirt and heavy equipment.

He received two years' probation. Gerze, said his mother, Cheryl Disher, feels a loss for Lisl and his friend, Jaehnig, but also wants to forget about the incident. "It turned his life around," she said.

Soriano, also 22 at the time, could not be reached for comment. She, too, received two years' probation, but was later flagged by her probation officer for violations including testing positive for methamphetamine, so when she gave birth in September 2000, the baby was given over to social services.