Justice Finally Served: Masters Released

[DenverChief]

FORT COLLINS – At just after 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, Tim Masters left his imprisoned past and embraced his free future.

With a packed courtroom looking on, Judge Joseph Weatherby set aside Masters' conviction and vacated his life sentence.

Masters has spent the last 9-and-a-half years in prison for the 1987 murder of Peggy Hettrick in Fort Collins.

Masters walked out the courtroom doors wearing a dark suit, a gold necktie and a look of relief. During a press conference Masters said his legal team pooled their money to buy him the suit and tie.

His family and friends hugged and kissed Masters. Many cried while at the same time smiling.

The Larimer County District Attorney now must decide whether or not to dismiss all the charges against Masters. Monday, he promised to work quickly to make a determination.

Masters' attorney entered not guilty pleas to any possible charges. A $200,000 personal recognizance bond was issued in the case. Masters is due back in court on Feb. 5 when he will learn if the prosecution will file any new charges in the case, but a legal analyst says new charges are unlikely, given the DNA evidence which points to another suspect.

As Masters stood to leave the courtroom, those in attendance erupted into applause.

The special prosecutors from Adams County, who were assigned to Masters' appeals process, recommended Masters' release last week after a new DNA analysis linked DNA found on Hettrick's body to one of her ex-boyfriends.

The finding followed hearings throughout 2007 in which Masters' attorneys showed that the prosecution in the 1999 murder trial withheld significant information from the defense.

http://www.9news.com/news/top-articl...?storyid=84938

History of the case

http://www.9news.com/news/investigat...s/default.aspx

[DenverChief]

FORT COLLINS – One of Tim Masters' former attorneys says prosecutors misled the jury back in 1999 when Masters was sent to prison for the 1987 murder of Peggy Hettrick.

Erik Fischer, former co-counsel in the Masters' case, took the stand Thursday. He said when prosecutors claimed there was no one else aside from Masters who could have committed the crime, they were leaving out important information they had regarding Dr. Richard Hammond.

Hammond was an eye doctor in Fort Collins, who lived near the murder scene. He committed suicide after police discovered videotapes he had secretly made of women using his bathroom.

Fischer said knowledge about Hammond and his deviant sexual past would have refuted the prosecution's main argument that Masters was the only viable suspect.

However, Fischer said prosecutors never handed over information regarding Hammond. He said the law required them to do so.

"They don't get to tell me what's relevant," Fischer said.

The issue of whether such information must be turned over to the defense appears to be rather important to Judge Joseph Weatherby as he decides whether to grant Masters a new trial.

The hearing Thursday was one of several held throughout the year pertaining to Masters' effort to obtain a new trial.

Aside from Hammond, Masters' defense team says the prosecutors never disclosed an expert opinion that determined Hettrick's wounds were surgical in nature and information regarding a surveillance project conducted by the Fort Collins police on the first anniversary of the murder.

The project was aimed at eliciting behavior from Masters that would further tie him to the crime. According to police documents, Masters acted normal throughout the anniversary.

The special prosecutors from Adams County have suggested Masters' former attorneys could have done more to obtain the information the Larimer County District Attorney's office did not hand over.

What makes the allegations of prosecutorial misconduct especially serious is that the former prosecutors, Jolene Blair and Terence Gilmore, are now sitting District Court judges in Larimer County.

Judge Gilmore's secretary said both judges are not commenting on the matter.

Hettrick was killed in February 1987 in Fort Collins. Her body was found in a field near both Masters and Hammond's homes. The killer stabbed her in the back and mutilated parts of her vagina and breast.

Masters was 15 at the time. With no DNA or any other physical evidence tying Masters to the crime, prosecutors brought a forensic psychologist to the stand during the trial, who claimed sexual and violent drawings Masters had made linked him to the murder.

[DenverChief]

FORT COLLINS - Tim Masters' former defense attorney accused police of trying to frame his client in 1988 by planting a misleading newspaper article, delivering the paper to his home, then arguing in court that Peggy Hettrick's killer likely kept stories about her murder.

"That is a frame," said former defense co-counsel Nathan Chambers, growing agitated on the stand Tuesday. Chambers has previously attacked police and prosecutors, but his comments Tuesday were his strongest yet suggesting there has been outright malpractice.

Chambers is continuing to testify as an expert witness in Masters' bid for a new trial. The convicted killer's new defense team is trying to show that police and prosecutors withheld information that could have cleared Masters in Hettrick's 1987 death.

Monday, Chambers testified that he never received police reports detailing an elaborate sting operation conducted against Masters on the one-year anniversary of Hettrick's death. The operation, intended to unsettle Masters and force him into incriminating himself, failed.

Neither Masters, who was 16 at the time of the sting, nor his father, subscribed to the newspaper at the time. According to police, the delivered a month's worth of the Coloradoan to their doorstep.

The newspaper article in question suggested that police were growing close to making an arrest in the case because a single suspect had emerged.

Masters was ultimately convicted in 1999, based in large part of the testimony of a profiler who said Hettrick's killer would have had sexual fantasies, been obsessed with knives, and would have kept information about her death.

During the 1988 sting, police also put a copy of Masters' mother's obituary under the windshield wiper of a friend's vehicle as part of the sting. Hettrick's death came almost exactly four years after the death of Masters' mother. Experts had suggested that Hettrick's murder was an anniversary killing. Both women had red hair.

"They're chumming the waters, your Honor, trying to get a bite," Chambers testified on Monday. "They didn't just surveil Tim Masters. They … tried to prompt a response from him. And he passed. Their experiment failed, and they didn't give me that information."

Two former prosecutors in the original Masters case are now local judges. They may be called to testify by Masters' new attorneys.

[DenverChief]

LAKEWOOD – A former Fort Collins Police detective says he was always skeptical that Tim Masters was a killer.

"Today is a great day for vindicating a lot of people," said Troy Krenning.

Krenning worked as a detective for the Fort Collins Police Department in 1987 when Peggy Hettrick's body was found in a field near Masters' home.

"To believe that a 15-year-old kid could go out in the middle of the night, commit this crime, kill a woman, drag her hundreds of feet through a field, remove parts of her body and not leave any trace evidence of himself at the murder scene or not have any of the evidence of the murder transported by himself back to his home, is incredible," said Krenning.

Krenning became very emotional when talking about the possibility of an innocent man going to prison.

"Imagining your son being taken at the prime of his life," said Krenning as he held back tears, "and incarcerated for a crime he didn't commit. Think about the years that have been squandered. That cannot be replaced."

Masters' father died while he was in prison.

"He has always maintained his innocence. He's sat there with no hope in getting out. Isn't that tragic?" asked Krenning after Friday's news conference.

At the news conference, a special prosecutor announced that recent testing on DNA found on Hettrick's clothing did not match Masters'.

Special prosecutor Don Quick said Friday he will ask a judge to release Tim Masters Tuesday. Quick said he attempted to get Masters released sooner.

"Things happened so fast on Friday night. We just weren't able to get everybody in the same place at the same time," said Quick.

[Brock]

Colorado? Who cares...

[banyon]

This is exactly why the death penalty sucks.

[Brock]

I love how some people use a weak death penalty case to cast doubt in other cases where there is none. Great logic there.

[banyon]

Originally Posted by Brock

I love how some people use a weak death penalty case to cast doubt in other cases where there is none. Great logic there.

There was no reasonable doubt in this case either.

[Eleazar]

So what does the gubment do for you when you're in jail for years and are then found innocent. Do you get anything in return other than being set free?

[banyon]

Originally Posted by Cochise

So what does the gubment do for you when you're in jail for years and are then found innocent. Do you get anything in return other than being set free?

your pay if you worked. Unless they charge you to stay like some KS counties.

[Simplex3]

It's cases like this that make me doubt the viability of our system with a public that is this stupid. Where do you find 12 people to convict a guy on murder because ONE shrink says "yeah, he drew some stuff so he's guilty."?

[mikey23545]

If DNA evidence is used to set the innocent free, then incriminating DNA evidence should be used to instantly, with no appeal, execute murderers.

[Simplex3]

Originally Posted by mikey23545

If DNA evidence is used to set the innocent free, then incriminating DNA evidence should be used to instantly, with no appeal, execute murderers.

Wow. That has GOT to be the dumbest thing ever posted on the Internet. Ever.

[mikey23545]

Originally Posted by Simplex3

Wow. That has GOT to be the dumbest thing ever posted on the Internet. Ever.

So DNA evidence can establish absolute innocence, but not absolute guilt?

That has GOT to be the most illogical statement ever posted on the internet. Ever.

[Simplex3]

Originally Posted by mikey23545

So DNA evidence can establish absolute innocence, but not absolute guilt?

That has GOT to be the most illogical statement ever posted on the internet.

You're aware that you leave DNA evidence everywhere you go, every day, right? If someone was killed in my office there is going to be ample DNA evidence from me. Doesn't mean I did it.

Maybe I got in a fight with the person, lost a little blood on their clothes, and later they were killed by someone else. No problem, just off me anyway. After all, there was my DNA on the corpse.

Also, never in history have cops planted evidence. It's simply never, ever happened.

There's nothing illogical about wanting to be more than just "pretty sure" before whacking someone.