Prosecution: 'You snitch, you die'
By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published April 8, 2008 at 9:19 p.m.
Updated April 8, 2008 at 9:19 p.m.
CENTENNIAL — Sir Mario Owens lived by his own criminal code, prosecutors said as his murder trial opened Tuesday: "You snitch, you die."
Owens is charged in the killings of Javad Marshall-Fields and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe, both 22, in the summer of 2005. The young couple was gunned down in their car at an Aurora intersection.
The two were killed a week before Marshall-Fields was scheduled to testify as a star witness against Robert Ray, a friend of Owens, in the shooting death of Gregory Vann at Lowry Park after a Fourth of July celebration a year earlier.
Security is tight at the trial. There's an additional level of security to enter the courtroom, jury selection was done in private and a gag order is expected to span at least five weeks.
A detail that's sure to be key is a New York Yankees cap found on South Dayton Street.
DNA tests linked the hat to Owens, and since no weapons or vehicles used in the shooting were recovered, the status of the hat is significant, lawyers on both sides have indicated.
Arapahoe County Deputy District Attorney John Hower told the jury that Owens was likely the passenger in a car driven by an accomplice, a car that pulled up next to the couple and riddled their car with bullets. He said the cap probably blew off during the shootings.
Defense attorney Laurie Kepros said the DNA of at least one other person was recovered from the cap. Noting that there were no witnesses to the shootings, she said Hower was only speculating about Owens' involvement.
"You can't just make something up about a hat blowing off someone's head," she said. "You can't just make up evidence. Sir Mario Owens is not guilty of these crimes."
Owens, 23, wearing a neatly pressed burnt orange shirt, closely cropped hair and stylish glasses, occasionally looked around the courtroom and smiled. He faces the death penalty if he's convicted.
Owens was found guilty last year of first-degree murder in Vann's death and sentenced to life in prison. Ray was sentenced to 108 years in that case. Ray's trial in the killings of Marhsall- Fields and Wolfe — also a death penalty case — is set for August.
Hower portrayed Marshall- Fields as heroic for refusing to give in to threats and bribes by associates of Ray, including Owens.
Both Marshall-Fields and Wolfe had graduated from Colorado State University, and were planning to move to Virginia to start their lives. They had been engaged just a week when killed.
"Vivian Wolfe and her fiance appeared to have the world on a string," Hower said. "Before they could go, Javad had an important duty, an obligation to perform. He had been subpoenaed to testify in a trial.
"Javad was determined nothing was going to prevent him from performing that duty."
Wolfe and Marshall-Fields were on their way to pick up a friend for an evening out when they were shot.
Hower said Ray's wife will testify that Owens indicated he didn't intend to kill Wolfe, having allegedly stated that the "b---- was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
The prosecutor said that less than a month after the double killings, Owens bought T-shirts at an Aurora mall that said "Stop snitching" on the front and "RIP" — for rest in peace — on the back.
"These are not merely articles of clothing," Hower said. "They're billboards carrying a message."
Kepros told the jury that a Chicago man visited Ray in June and was scheduled to return home June 19, 2005, the day before the shootings. Instead, he left Colorado later than planned, she said.
"Why is this guy here?" Kepros asked. "The time frames are a little fishy. The rumors on the street are that the murders were committed by a hired gun from Chicago."
A nurse who lived near the shooting scene was the first witness to testify. She talked about trying to aid Wolfe before an ambulance arrived. She said Marshall-Fields had no pulse, but Wolfe was moaning.
The nurse choked up as she described seeing Wolfe's bullet-riddled body. "I kept saying, 'You need to hang on, sweetie. You need to hang on.'"
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April 8, 2008
11:07 p.m.
Suggest removal
happymike44 writes:
These t-shirts are designed to send a message to the rest of us that if we stand up and testify.Then you better be ready to buy a coffin.These shirts have been so successful that in some communities the police can not get people to tell them anything for fear of it leading to their own death.This guy may or not be accountable for these deaths but the good lord will settle all of this when he is done on this planet.They should just push the plunger and save society the cost of housing him.
April 9, 2008
12:52 a.m.
Suggest removal
phlsat writes:
The scumbag is already doing life in prison and he sits in a court room looking around and smiling? It just shows how utterly pathetic and stupid Owens and his brothers are. They're quite happy to sit in prison the rest of their lives and be pleased with themselves about enforcing some code of silence to intimidate decent people. Owens is a little boy and will always be one. He can stay in prison and let that smile rot on his face. He is right where he belongs in prison. In a few years he won't look so happy - especially when he sits down! Good riddance loser!