A Denver judge on Friday ruled that the murder prosecution in a road-rage killing can continue even though a paralegal publicly said prosecutors believe the defendant acted in self-defense and shouldn’t have been criminally charged.
Denver District Court Judge Karen Brody denied a motion to dismiss the first-degree murder case against Nicholas Moodley, 32, late Friday. Moodley is charged with killing Shane Warn, 25, in November 2023 during a road-rage encounter at Park Avenue West and Blake Street in Denver, near Coors Field.
Moodley’s attorneys argued the charges had to be dismissed after a paralegal who worked in the Denver District Attorney’s Office told one of Moodley’s friends that prosecutors believed they’d “got it wrong” and shouldn’t have charged Moodley with murder. Moodley has claimed he acted in self-defense during the shooting.
Brody disagreed with defense attorneys in a four-page order Friday, finding that the paralegal’s opinion of the case does not matter — and defense attorneys did not show that prosecutors believe that Moodley acted in self-defense.
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Prosecutors have an ethical obligation to pursue a criminal prosecution only if they believe they can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. In court filings, prosecutors have maintained that Moodley committed murder and did not act in self-defense. Matt Jablow, a spokesman for the office, declined to comment Monday.
“Moodley makes no showing that the prosecutors in this case have drawn the conclusion that the charges filed are unsubstantiated, or unprovable because he has an airtight defense and are prosecuting the case in bad faith,” Brody wrote.
Moodley is set to stand trial in December. He faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder. His attorney, Doug Richards, said Monday he respects the judge’s ruling but is disappointed. He had asked for an evidentiary hearing to flush out the paralegal’s comments, but Brody also denied that request.
“We still do not know the identity of the Denver prosecutors who that office’s paralegal says agree this is a case of self-defense and that the Denver DA’s office made the wrong charging decision,” he said. “We had hoped a hearing would provide us this information.”
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