The following is the full text of a media release by the 11th Judicial District (including Chaffee, Custer, Fremont and Park Counties) regarding a clerical mistake involving Evan Spencer Ebel.    

The district court, in response to media inquiry, has reviewed the record in Fremont County case number 07CR105, People of the State of Colorado v. Evan Ebel. This response is from the district administrator and the chief judge. A judge of the district does not comment directly on his own cases. A transcript of the proceedings can be ordered through the Office of the Clerk of Court, Deborah Sather-Stringari at (719) 269-0100 or the state court website which can be found at www.courts.state.co.us, go to courts on the menu, select court by county, choose Fremont and follow instructions for Research Form and/or Transcript Form.

On April 9, 2008 defendant Evan Ebel entered into a written plea agreement. It stated that the district attorney and the defendant agreed that the defendant would plead guilty to Assault in the Second Degree and the court would impose a consecutive sentence of up to four years in the Department of Corrections, plus a mandatory three years of parole.

A sentencing hearing was held on June 11, 2008. The judge announced a sentence of four years in the Department of Corrections but did not state it was consecutive because it was already required by the terms of the plea agreement. Because the judge did not expressly state that the sentence was consecutive, the court judicial assistant did not include that term in the mittimus, the sentence order that went to the Department of Corrections.

The district has undertaken a review of its practices in an effort to avoid a re-occurrence of this circumstance.

The court regrets this oversight and extends condolences to the families of Mr. Nathan Leon and Mr. Tom Clements.

Charles M. Barton                             Walter Blair

Chief Judge                                       District Administrator

April 1, 2013