DOVE CREEK – Initially set to start in December, the jury trial for a man charged in the strangulation death of his lover has been postponed until next spring.
At a motion’s hearing on Friday, Oct. 16, the defendant, 45-year-old William Blackburn of Dove Creek, waived his right to speedy trial after prosecutors indicated that a witness had a scheduling conflict with the two week trial, set to start on December 7. A new trial date was set for March 7.
Blackburn is charged with second-degree murder as an act of domestic violence in the killing of 61-year-old Cindy Johnson on the night of Jan. 7. Investigators believe that Blackburn murdered Johnson after she refused to join him in bed.
“When I put my arms around her I didn’t think I was going to strangle her,” Blackburn told a Colorado Bureau of Investigations agent during a recorded interrogation on April 23.
According to Dolores County Sheriff Jerry Martin, Johnson suffered bruising on her throat and arms as well as hemorrhaging in her eyes. Blackburn’s DNA evidence was reportedly found under the alleged victim’s fingernails.
Public defender Justin Bogan contends that the alleged victim, instead, died of a drug overdose inside the couple’s home on the 1000 block of North Pine Street in Dove Creek.
At last week’s hearing, Bogan again raised the issue, stating a toxicology report from a Pennsylvania forensics laboratory revealed that Johnson had multiple types of narcotics in her blood. In a defense motion, Bogan has requested that prosecutors provide the methodology used to determine the alleged victim’s death.
“I don’t know if (the lab technician) danced on a pile of chicken bones to come up with these numbers,” Bogan said, citing the calculations used to determine the toxicology data were missing.
Presiding over the case, District Court Judge Todd Plewe suggested that Bogan file a specific discovery request for the data calculations. About a dozen other motions remain pending in the case, including a defense request to suppress statements that Blackburn made while being interrogated by authorities. The court is expected to address those remaining issues at a hearing on Nov. 16.
If convicted, Blackburn faces up to 48 years in prison. He remains in custody under a $200,000 bond.
Citing Blackburn faced foreclosure of his home as a result of his incarceration, public defender Sarah Hildebrand requested that her client’s bond again be reduced at last week’s hearing.
“Mr. Blackburn is not a danger to the community,” she said.
District Attorney Will Furse argued that the defendant’s home wasn’t relevant to the proceedings, adding the court previously lowered Blackburn’s initial $1 million bond. Plewe agreed, denying the defense request.
A rural community of about 700 residents, Dove Creek’s last homicide reportedly occurred some three decades ago.
tbaker@cortezjournal.com