Amber Torrez Sentenced to 10 years Prison for Assault

Jeffco.us

July 25, 2008

A 23-year-old Denver woman who was found not guilty by reason of insanity, in two first degree murder cases in Denver, was in court today for sentencing on a Jefferson County felony conviction. Amber Lee Torrez was sentenced to 10 years in prison for an assault that took place just days before the murders in Denver.

Torrez was arrested in March, 2004 on a Jefferson County warrant following an attack on a 20-year-old disabled man who had been her friend. The victim, Ian Daugherty, was disabled with a back injury from a car accident which left him wearing a brace on one leg, using a crutch to walk and with little use of his left arm or hand. Torrez and co-defendant Dayle Karry, 30, went to Daugherty?s house because Torrez was planning to attack Daugherty based upon something she believed he had said. At Daugherty?s house Torrez at first offered to rub his shoulders or neck, but then began her assault by trying to break his neck. Karry held Daugherty while Torrez severely punched and beat him in the face and head. They then tied his feet and hands, and covered his mouth with duct tape. Torrez poured alcohol over Daugherty intending to light him on fire, except that she could not find matches. Torrez and Karry stole property from Daugherty and pulled the telephone out of the wall before they left.

On June 3, 2008 Torrez pled guilty to second degree assault, a class four felony and a crime of violence. She has been in the custody of the Colorado Mental Health Institute (CMHI) since she was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the Denver cases in 2004. She will now be transferred into the custody of the Colorado Department of Corrections.

Co-defendant Dayle Brandon Karry, 30, pled guilty to third degree assault of an at-risk adult, theft, and false imprisonment on February 9, 2005. He was sentenced to five years Intensive Supervision Probation (ISP).

Insanity ruled in slayings

By Sue Lindsay - Rocky Mountain News

August 29, 2006

A woman who claimed she was a government assassin of traitors was insane when she stabbed two men to death in 2004, a judge ruled Monday.

Amber Torrez, 21, was tried Monday for the murders of John Hand, founder of Colorado Free University, and Freedom Cab driver Mesfin Gezahegn.

Hand, 55, was found dead of 30 stab wounds in his Denver apartment March 28, 2004. Gezahegn, 45, was killed the next day, stabbed 39 times near his cab at East 18th Avenue and Gilpin Street.

In the face of "unrebutted" conclusions from two psychiatrists and a psychologist that Torrez was delusional and psychotic when she killed Hand and Gezahegn, Denver District Judge Christina Habas said she was compelled to find Torrez not guilty by reason of insanity.

The judge ordered Torrez committed to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo until she is eligible for release.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed to a trial without a jury, in part because Torrez has adamantly insisted she is guilty and wanted to be sentenced immediately. Over her objections, her attorney entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

"It's been a long process - two years and five months since Amber Torrez savagely killed my brother," said Helen Hand. "I have to accept the conclusion reached today is appropriate. I will never be able to remove the images in my mind of how my brother lost his life."

Hand said her brother would be remembered as an "incredibly wonderful, vibrant, kind, life-affirming person" who leaves behind a legacy of his two children as well as Colorado Free University.

Gezahegn's brother, Haile Selassie Girmay, was upset with the trial, saying "there is no justice in this country."

He said he will not call his brother an American anymore - even though Gezahegn had become a U.S. citizen - because "America did not serve him justice."

T.C. Clinton, one of the prosecutors in the case, said he was not surprised by the judge's decision.

"The court's ruling was directly on point," Clinton said. "The court found that there were three unrebutted psychiatric opinions that she was legally insane."

Psychiatrists Karen Fukutaki and Mark Diamond testified that Torrez was insane when she repeatedly stabbed both men to death.

She viewed herself as a vigilante of morality, they said.

"She felt she was on a mission," Diamond said. "She believed they were traitors and needed to be killed. She believed it was her duty to get rid of these people, and the world would be a better place."

The doctors said Torrez believed she had a mandate from the government to recruit a global army of 700 assassins for her Shadow Angel Industries, a group that would kill enemies of the government, particularly robbers, rapists, prostitutes and their patrons.

Torrez understood that mainstream society would perceive her acts as wrong, Diamond said, but "she felt she had a higher calling."

The psychiatrists said they found no evidence that Torrez was faking her mental illness, noting that defendants falsely claiming to be insane rarely want to plead guilty.

Torrez had been diagnosed with mental illnesses since age 14 and had begun to craft her delusional Shadow Angel Industries in her mind at about that time, Fukutaki said.

Her condition worsened after she was brutally attacked by an ex-boyfriend at age 15, whom she believed was not appropriately punished, Fukutaki said. Torrez has post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result, the psychiatrist said.

'04 Cabbie killer found not guilty

By Howard Pankraft - DenverPost.com

August 28, 2006

A woman charged with fatally stabbing two men in 2004 was found not guilty by reason of insanity Monday.

Amber Torrez was charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of 55-year-old John Hand on March 28, 2004, and Denver cab driver Masfin Gezahgn the next day. Gezahgn, 45, was stabbed 39 times; Hand, the founder of the alternative Colorado Free University, was stabbed 30 times.

Torrez had repeatedly tried to plead guilty to the killings. But Denver District Judge Christina Habas rejected Torrez's request and entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The trial was scheduled for two days, but Habas was able to complete testimony Monday.

During testimony Monday, Denver police Detective Shawn Webster gave a gory description of the crime scene at Hand's home. "There were obvious signs of a struggle," he said. "There was lots of blood. There was blood in the living room near the couch and a lot of blood in the work area."

Two psychiatrists have determined that Torrez was insane at the time of the killings.

But one doctor, Karen Fukutaki, said that while Torrez was insane when the men were killed, Torrez was sane when Hand was robbed - just moments after he was stabbed to death.

Early in the day, defense attorney Holly Lucas made a brief statement, asking Habas to find Torrez not guilty by reason of insanity.

Webster testified Hand was pronounced dead soon after police responded to calls from a neighbor. "The person in the downstairs unit called 911 after he heard his upstairs neighbor yelling he was being killed," he said.

Webster said that there was a blood trail leading for blocks away from the home. DNA found in the blood matched Torrez's DNA, he said.

The surveillance cameras at the Denver gas station where Torrez allegedly used Hand's credit card showed something white wrapped around her fingers, the detective testified. Torrez told investigators that she was injured while stabbing Hand, he said.

Webster also testified about detectives the next day responding to an area near East 18th Avenue and Gilpin Street where Gezahgn was found dead.

In prior court hearings, Dr. Mark Diamond, chief of psychiatry at the Colorado Mental Health Institute, testified that Torrez was schizophrenic, has a bipolar orientation, which makes her manic and difficult to control, and has an antisocial/borderline disorder.

Fukutaki testified at an earlier hearing that Torrez told her at the age of 15 she was attacked by a man who held a knife to her throat and at age 18 was knocked out with a date-rape drug.