DA: No grand jury in Broncos case

Charlie Brennan, Lou Kilzer and Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 22, 2007 at midnight

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A spokeswoman for the Denver District Attorney’s Office said this afternoon that the mystery of who killed Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams has not gone to a grand jury.

Lynn Kimbrough denied a report by the Rocky Mountain News that a grand jury is hearing testimony in the case.

"The info in the breaking news alert is wrong. The grand jury is not hearing testimony, and a grand jury has not gotten the Williams case," she said.

A source knowledgable about the investigation had told the Rocky he was told in the very first days of the police probe that a grand jury had been convened in the case. When contacted again, the source said it was possible that police were bluffing.

Denver detectives and prosecutors have been unusually tight-lipped about the Williams case.

Williams, a popular 24-year-old cornerback for the Denver Broncos, was shot and killed in a barrage of gunfire at 11th Avenue and Speer Boulevard after he left a Denver nightclub about 2:20 a.m. Jan. 1. Two other passengers, riding with Williams in a rented white Hummer limo, were wounded.

Williams’ group was on the way home from a birthday party at Denver’s Club Safari held in honor of Denver Nuggets star Kenyon Martin. Some witnesses have told police that there was a verbal altercation at the nightspot between associates of Williams and other unidentified partygoers.

No one has been charged in the case, although police are holding a reputed gang member, whom they called "a person of interest," on an alleged parole violation. That person, Willie D. Clark, 23, was arrested Jan. 5 and remains in jail.

Some legal observers say, as the case stretches on with no arrests, the grand jury might be the best available law enforcement tool.

"From the first moment, within hours of it, I thought to myself it has grand jury written all over it," said Denver defense lawyer and legal analyst Scott Robinson.

"It has grand jury written all over it because there are people who are not just worried about repercussions from gangs, but are leery of the police in general."

Grand juries have the power to subpoena personal records and force reluctant witnesses to appear who might otherwise not cooperate with criminal investigations.

That’s particularly an issue in the Williams case. Police have seized the 1998 Chevy Tahoe from which they believe shots were fired at Williams' entourage. The vehicle belongs to Crips gang member Brian Kenneth Hicks.

Although Hicks, 28, has been in jail since Nov. 9 on drug charges, police are also investigating the Dec. 6 slaying in Denver of Kalonniann Louisa Clark-James, who was gunned down at her Cherry Creek home that night, just days before she was to testify against Hicks in an attempted murder trial.

The Clark-James killing has raised police and street-level concerns about violent retaliation against cooperating witnesses in a number of pending cases, both solved and unsolved.

"There may be a number of people who are reluctant to give statements to the police, either because they are associated with criminal conduct themselves, or they are fearful of gang reprisals," said Robinson. "What better tool than the grand jury subpoena, and testimony under oath to find out what really happened during the (Williams) shooting?"

Robinson said a grand jury setting would also lend itself to addressing a number of unsolved, but possibly related cases.

In addition to the Williams and Clark-James shootings, police have never made an arrest in the shooting of athletes Joey Porter and Julius Hodge.

Pittsburgh Steelers player Joey Porter was wounded in a shooting with suspected gang ties outside All Sports — Denver’s Best Sports Bar and Grill in August 2003.

More recently, now-former Denver Nuggets player Julius Hodge was shot and wounded last April 8 while riding away from a Denver nightclub with friends in a limousine. Adams County investigators have put no one behind bars in that incident, either.

There are three ongoing grand juries in Denver right now. Two were impaneled for 2007 cases, and there is one holdover from 2006. All meet in the grand jury room on the third floor of the Denver City & County building.

Each grand jury currently meets one day a week. The day can vary, as well as the hours, depending on witnesses prosecutors have scheduled.

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