GOLDEN, Colo. — A man accused of stabbing another man to death outside a Wheat Ridge bar has been charged with second degree murder.
According to the 1st Judicial District Attorney's Office, Wheat Ridge police were called to a home in the 4700 block of Routt Street by 29-year-old Clinton Priest on Sept. 23.
The arrest affidavit says Priest told police that his father, 53-year-old Clinton Priest, had come home from a bar and had blood on his clothing and body. The 53-year-old Priest claimed he had been attacked and someone had stabbed him in the head, the affidavit says.
Minutes later, according to the affidavit, police were dispatched to the Rambling Rose at 10080 W. 44th Ave. on a report of a man, later identified as 32-year-old Robert Miller, bleeding in the parking lot who couldn't speak and was barely breathing. Miller was found unconscious on the ground, covered in blood, the affidavit says. He later died at a hospital.
The bartender told police Miller had been in the bar, drank about two beers and had asked other patrons for a ride home, according to the affidavit. He had asked another man for a ride, the affidavit says, and that man said no. The bartender said he saw the two men arguing outside, according to the affidavit, and he later went outside and saw Miller on the ground, bleeding.
The officer who had talked to the bartender aired a description of a suspect vehicle from the Rambling Rose, the affidavit says, and another officer said a vehicle matching that description was at the address on Routt Street.
The affidavit says later, the 53-year-old Priest told police he had been assaulted and that he was the victim. However, full-body photographs taken by a detective at the police station revealed no visible injuries that would have resulted in open bleeding and only a few small scratches, the affidavit says. He had been released from the hospital with no treatment, according to the affidavit.
An officer conducted a sweep of the home on Routt Street and found blood in several rooms, the affidavit says, as well as a small, pointed, scalloped baton on a set of keys that had blood on them and a red shirt covered in blood in the washing machine.
An autopsy revealed Miller had bled to death from a stab wound to the arm.
RELATED: 1 dead after stabbing in Wheat Ridge
The 53-year-old Priest was arrested. In addition to second degree murder, he was charged with four counts of possession of a weapon by a previous offender, as well as two violent crime counts, according to the district attorney. He is being held on $500,000 bond at the Jefferson County jail and is due back in court on Oct. 21 for a preliminary hearing.
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