Man faces trial in slay case

Woman, 61, raped, left in frigid alley

By Keith Coffman , Special to the Rocky

Friday, February 29, 2008

Trimble, 46, charged with felony murder, sexual assault.

A 61-year-old woman who was raped and abandoned outdoors in frigid temperatures was able to describe the assault and her attacker before she died of exposure, a police officer testified Thursday at a hearing for the man accused of the crime.

Denver police officer Michael Oestmann said he found a partially clothed Judith Pyle between trash bins in an alley near the 3500 block of Clayton Street after he was sent to the area Dec. 9 on reports of a woman screaming for help.

"She said she saw the suspect when she got off a bus and that he followed her, pushed her into the alley, held her down and . . . raped her," Oestmann said.

Pyle also told the officer that she was cold and unable to get up, but described her attacker as a black man in his 50s, wearing a tan jacket with a hood.

Oestmann's testimony came during a preliminary hearing in Denver County Court on whether there was probable cause to try Willie James Trimble, a repeat parole violator, in Pyle's death. Prosecutors charged Trimble, 46, with felony murder and sexual assault of an at-risk adult.

Denver County Judge Andrew Armatas ruled that there was sufficient evidence to try Trimble for the murder and set an April 24 arraignment date in district court.

Colorado's felony murder statute allows prosecutors to file murder charges when a victim dies during or as a result of another felony offense. Semen extracted from the victim matched Trimble's, whose DNA profile is stored in a state criminal database, prosecutors said.

Trimble has criminal convictions dating back 28 years for an array of nonviolent crimes, including forgery, cocaine possession, drug dealing, burglary and theft charges. He also spent time in prison for several parole violations.

He had been released three weeks before Pyle was attacked, after pleading guilty to attempted escape for another parole violation.