FORT COLLINS, Colo — Police in Fort Collins made mistakes during an initial investigation into a shooting, leading to little evidence that forced prosecutors to offer a plea deal, a deputy district attorney said Wednesday.
Colemann Carver, 22, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of tampering with evidence in the case, a crime he admitted to months after the 2018 shooting that left 21-year-old Finnegan Daly dead; in an interview with investigators, Carver said he picked up the gun that killed his roommate, and then placed it back on Daly's lap.
Daly's death was deemed accidental and self-inflicted, but his family has intensely scrutinized the Fort Collins Police Department, as the initial investigation ended without any charges related to the case. After reviewing the case file, the family pushed police to re-open the investigation upon discovering a Snapchat photo that was initially overlooked.
“They admitted that the first investigation was improperly done, poorly done, whatever word you want to use, and the judge echoed that in her statement,” Daly’s stepfather John Bucolo said outside of the courtroom Wednesday.
DALY'S DEATH
At around 3:30 a. on Jan. 14, 2018, officers responded to a home in the 2500 block of Romeldale Lane in Fort Collins on reports of an accidental shooting. Carver and Daly were two of the housemates living there at the time.
Speaking to investigators on the scene that morning, Carver told police officers he took his weapons from his truck and brought them downstairs to his room after returning home hours before. He said he then started drinking with Daly upstairs.
At the end of their night, Carver said he went back downstairs to clean his weapons before bed.
Carver also said that an intoxicated Daly had walked into his room, picked up his Glock handgun, swung it around and accidentally fired a shot, striking himself in the neck. Carver said, as an experienced hunter, he knew with the amount of blood there that Daly was dead.
After police first closed the case, Daly’s family pressed the department to take another look after finding a Snapchat photo sent by Daly moments before the 911 call. The photo shows Carver posing with his guns and holding the handgun that killed Daly.
Upon reopening the investigation, police re-interviewed Carver, who changed his story. He said in those moments before calling 911, he was cleaning up the scene, expecting to be arrested. He cleaned beer cans and marijuana paraphernalia, worried he would get in trouble for underage use.
Carver also admitted to investigators that he picked up the gun after Daly shot himself and tried to eject the cartridge from the chamber, and then placed the gun back in Daly’s lap.
As a result, police charged him with three counts: felony tampering with evidence, misdemeanor prohibited use of a weapon and misdemeanor reckless endangerment.
In court on Wednesday, prosecutors finalized a deal dropping the misdemeanor charges in exchange for Carver's guilty plea to the tampering charge. Under the deferred sentence, if Carver is successful in probation, the felony case against him will be sealed, essentially wiping it from his record.
“[Finnegan’s older brother] Griffin has been sentenced to life without his best friend,” Gina Daly, Finnegan's mother, said outside of court. “Colemann can hang out for two years, then he gets it sealed.”
The plea deal came with other conditions. Carver won’t be allowed to drink alcohol or use drugs for the term of his two-year probation. He cannot own, possess or use a firearm in that time either.
He will also be required to take a firearm safety course and write a 1,000-word essay on the dangers of mixing alcohol and drugs with firearms. Carver also must complete a total of 500 community service hours.
PROSECUTORS: THERE WERE HOLES IN THE INVESTIGATION
Daly’s family opposed the plea deal, leaving Deputy District Attorney Ashley Barber having to explain to the court why the district attorney's office was asking for it.
Barber said problems with the initial investigation were incurable. Police did not take a blood test from Carver that night to check his blood-alcohol level, making it difficult to argue the reckless endangerment case.
While they took a sample of gunshot residue from Carver that night, the investigators didn’t submit the sample for processing, and they never tested Daly’s hands.
Investigators that night failed to record audio of an interview with the other roommate in the house. They also never submitted the gun involved for function testing.
Barber said crucial evidence from that night was lost with these flaws and cannot be recovered.
“There were errors that were made in the first investigations that cannot be corrected, even by the best detective,” Barber told Judge Susan Blanco, admitting that a defense attorney would have found plenty of ways to challenge evidence at trial, necessitating a plea deal.
“The loss here is clearly catastrophic,” she said, acknowledging the family may never know. “The justice system is not always geared toward finding the truth.”
Carver’s attorney agreed the case is tragic.
“It’s not in dispute that a beautiful life was lost,” defense attorney Derek Samuelson said. “It’s also not in dispute that there are evidentiary problems in this case.”
Before sentencing Carver, Blanco addressed the problems in the case.
“The problem here is that there are so many discrepancies – there are so many questions left unanswered,” she said of the investigation. “It was poorly completed is the nicest way to state it.”
Blanco said the court can’t shore up the investigation.
“There is no way for us to make this just or fair,” she said.
Hearing the court criticize the investigation validated concerns the family has had since the first investigation closed.
“The judge and the DA agree how numerous mistakes were made in that first investigation, yet they won’t take it upon themselves to investigate what exactly went on in that investigation,” Gina Daly said outside the courtroom.
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