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Judge Sentences Owens To Death

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Dec 8, 2008 6:04 pm US/Mountain

Judge Sentences Owens To Death

Reporting
Terry Jessup
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4/AP) ― A man convicted of gunning down two people, including a potential witness in a murder trial, can be put to death as early as March, an Arapahoe County judge said Monday.

Sir Mario Owens, 23, becomes the second person on Colorado's death row.

Arapahoe County Judge Gerald Rafferty stayed Owens' execution pending the routine review by the state Supreme Court, and appeals are expected to delay the execution well past March.

Owens was convicted of murder in May in the 2005 shooting deaths of Javad Marshall-Fields and his fiancee, Vivian Wolfe. The same jury sentenced him in June to be executed.

Marshall-Fields and Wolfe were stopped at an intersection in the Denver suburb of Aurora when they were shot. Marshall-Fields was expected to testify against Owens in another murder case.

"He took my son's life," said Marshall-Fields' mother, Rhonda Marshall-Fields, during the hearing. "He took his identity. He took his future."

"I just feel very saddened by the whole events, by all the events, because I know this holiday season we're still going to have two empty seats at our Christmas dinner," she said.

Wolfe's father, Mike Prosser, added that Owens is "merely a piece of society's refuse."

Wolfe's mother, Christine Wolfe, said she's waited almost four years for justice and expects Owens' death sentence will be drawn out even longer.

"It's just the beginning and it's way too long; and every day we deal with this, actually, it literally destroys us," Christine Wolfe said.

Owens joins 34-year-old Nathan Dunlap as the only prisoners in Colorado awaiting execution.

Dunlap was convicted in 1996 of murder, attempted murder and other charges for killing four people and wounding a fifth a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Aurora in December 1993. His attorneys are appealing the sentence.

Owens was already serving life in prison for the 2004 slaying of Gregory Vann at an Aurora Park, the case in which Marshall-Fields was to testify.

Jurors also convicted Robert Ray as an accessory to murder in Vann's death, and he was sentenced to 108 years in prison.

Ray also will stand trial in the deaths of Marshall-Fields and Wolfe and faces the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors say Ray ordered their deaths.

Ray's trial was expected to start in September but was postponed.

Owens' attorney, Dan King, did not immediately return a call. Arapahoe County district attorney's spokeswoman Kathleen Walsh said Owens' next hearing is Monday.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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