Pueblo man convicted of first-degree murder
Zach Hillstrom Crime and Courts Reporter @ZachHillstrom
A Pueblo man was convicted of first-degree murder Thursday and was immediately sentenced in Pueblo District Court to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jack Pembelton, 64, was on trial for fatally shooting his 54-year-old neighbor Danny Jones on May 25, 2017, and was convicted after less than two hours of jury deliberation following a four-day trial that began Monday.
Pembelton confessed to shooting Jones during interviews with Pueblo police detectives shortly after the incident, but the public defender's office, represented in the matter by defense attorney Zak Brown, presented the argument that Pembelton had done so not in anger, as the district attorney alleged, but in self-defense after he and Jones engaged in an altercation regarding a firearm Pembelton believed Jones had stolen from him.
The 10th Judicial District Attorney's Office, represented in the courtroom by Deputy DAs Tony Marzavas and Patrick Jones, relied heavily upon Pembelton's confession and the testimony of two key witnesses, as well as physical evidence collected at the scene showing the bullet that killed Jones was fired from Pembelton's 22-caliber revolver.
Pembelton's attorneys presented the case that the 64-year-old had been forced to make his "last stand" against Jones after Jones came to the front door of his residence to confront him about Pembelton's allegation that Jones had stolen his pistol.
The defense submitted evidence they said showed Pembelton had reason to fear for his life and defend himself, including photographs of wounds they say were sustained by Pembelton during the altercation, toxicology evidence that indicated Jones was under the influence of methamphetamines at the time of the shooting, and photographs of knives found on Jones' body after his death.
The defense also argued that after Pembelton admitted to shooting Jones, the police department did not conduct a thorough investigation into the factors leading up to the shooting and investigators did not conduct tests on numerous items of evidence that may have corroborated Pembelton's later claim he had shot Jones in self-defense.
They "based their case on one man being dead and another saying he did it," Brown told the jury.
According to an arrest affidavit authored shortly after the shooting, Pembelton told police he was sure Jones had stolen his firearm and had "deliberately loaded" his other gun to confront Jones about the theft.
He said he shot Jones two separate times in the leg and fired a total of four shots in Jones' direction, however, Jones' autopsy report found he had only been struck once with a bullet that made contact near his armpit, which the defense said showed that Pembelton's comments to police were unreliable.
Pembelton's confession during a 45-minute interview following the incident – in which prosecutors noted Pembelton never mentioned having acted in self-defense or having seen any weapons on Jones during the altercation – proved to be too much for the defense to overcome.
Pembelton was convicted by a 12-person jury and sentenced by Pueblo District Court Judge William Alexander to life in prison in the Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole.
zhillstrom@chieftain.com