DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — After nearly 40 years, a cold case out of Lone Tree has been closed, but a major snag — which is likely to impact other cases — forced the judge to hand down a much leaner sentence than what victims had hoped.
On Thursday afternoon, loved ones of Roger Dean filled a courtroom, sitting alongside people who never knew him but have become ingrained in his family — and the circumstances around death — for decades. At the front of the courtroom was Michael Shannel Jefferson, now 67 years old, donned in an orange jumpsuit and sitting next to his defense team.
The judge walked out and everybody stood up.
The day marked nearly 40 years — that's more than 14,600 days — since 51-year-old Roger Dean, a husband and father, was found shot multiple times in front of his home on Big Horn Court in Lone Tree, with no suspect in sight. It was a case that, to the horror of his mourning loved ones, would go cold for decades before Jefferson's arrest three and a half years ago.
By the end of the day Thursday, the judge had sentenced Jefferson to 32 years in prison, a significantly lesser sentence than what the victim's family hoped he would serve, but one derived from a plea deal. It was the maximum the law allowed.
“I never gave up hope that today would eventually come," Roger Dean's daughter Tamara Dean Harney said in court. “Trying to put into words the impact that Michael Jefferson has had on me is challenging at best. He not only ended my dad’s existence, but over the years, he purposefully attempted to make me question my safety and security, as well as the inherent goodness of people.”
The sentencing marked the end of a long and complex case that hit one major, unforeseen obstacle — a delay that may end up impacting thousands of other Coloradans who trusted a Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) DNA analyst to bring them clarity, comfort and justice.
Vital DNA from the 1985 shooting scene in Lone Tree had landed in the hands of a scientist accused of mishandling DNA across more than 1,000 cases.
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ROGER DEAN
The morning of Nov. 21, 1985 was snowy in Lone Tree.
Inside a home along Bighorn Court, Roger Dean and his wife Doris Jean "DJ" Dean were starting their day.
DJ had heard her husband downstairs and started her morning routine in a bathroom upstairs. It surprised her when Roger then called for her from their upstairs bedroom. She rounded the corner to see a man in a ski mask — later identified as Jefferson, then-28 years old — holding a gun on Roger, Harney and the prosecution told the court Thursday. Jefferson used the gun to direct DJ to the bed, where she was blindfolded and bound.
Jefferson demanded to know how much money the Deans had, Harney said.
DJ heard her husband hopefully asking the suspect, "You're not going to hurt us?" and the suspect replying, "Not if you do what I want," the prosecution said.
The two men went downstairs, where an altercation broke out. DJ heard two gunshots and her husband yelling, "I'll give you the goddamn 30,000," the prosecution said. She heard more gunshots and was able to get down the stairs to see that Roger had been shot. He stumbled to the front of the house and collapsed near the street.
He had been shot five times in the abdomen at close proximity.
He had died in the snow. Jefferson had fled from the scene.
Authorities were called.
At her workplace, Roger and DJ's daughter Harney had just sat down when a receptionist passed along a call from a friend of her mother's, who told Harney to come home immediately. Not knowing what had happened, Harney remembers that she couldn't stop crying as she made her way to her car, and the tears had frozen to her face.
“The scene was surreal when I turned toward our street," she said in court. "My path forward was blocked by emergency vehicles with flashing lights. I threw the car door open and attempted to run the rest of the way, but quickly slammed into what felt like a wall. A police officer had me in a bear hug, refusing to let me go closer.”
Inside a neighbor's house, she united with her mother. Finally, somebody told her that her dad had been killed.
“Mom and I were both in shock so we were taken by ambulance to Swedish Hospital. It always felt ironic that the place where I was born was the same place I was taken to face my dad’s death," Harney said.
At the scene, investigators gathered evidence — shell casings, buttons, a ski mask, a backpack.
Her dad's final moments play on replay in her head, Harney said.
"I shudder when I think of him lying on the cold pavement," she said. "His body riddled with bullets. Blood pouring from the five gunshot wounds that Jefferson fired at pointblank range into his abdomen.”
Carly Gibson also recalled the murder in court — at just 9 years old, she had witnessed it, though her account was not believed for years. She said she can still remember Roger calling for help, bleeding through his shirt, and collapsing on the ground outside his home. She watched Jefferson escape, she told the courtroom. She had told investigators what she had seen — a Black man running from the scene — but they did not believe her and authorities reported the suspect was white. She was proved to be correct many years later.
Roger's funeral came five days after the homicide, with the suspect still at-large and the investigation underway.
Around this time, Harney began receiving prank calls and death threats. Police recommended the family move away from Colorado until things calmed down. Harney said their move to Arizona only turned their lives more upside down, with the ever-lingering worry that they were on somebody's hit list.
A year later, she returned to Colorado with her mother. Harney briefly moved to California before coming back to Colorado. Together, she said she was evolving and rebuilding — as was DJ — even if the question of who killed Roger haunted them both.
“The devastating emotions that accompany losing someone you love to violence never go away. But it had become manageable," she said.
Five years after the murder, on July 21, 1990, Harney walked to the mailbox and everything changed. She opened a letter with her mother.
“I felt gut-punched when I read the author’s words, stating that he was dad’s killer," she said, adding that the letters contained details about the crime that were never released to the public.
The letter writer said they had followed her to California and around Colorado since her return, and if DJ did not pay $150,000, they would kill Harney. The letter warned the women not to call police. But they did, and the FBI became involved.
“Additional extortion letters continued to come," Harney said. "Most reiterated the same threats and demands. All continued to remind mom that the sender was a cold-blooded killer and that my dad was his proof.”
Authorities planned fake money drops and the Deans' phones were tapped. A body guard came with Harney wherever she went because she said she "refused to allow Jefferson to make me a prisoner in mom’s house." While the prosecution and multiple others said Jefferson was responsible for the extortion letters and calls, he was never convicted of it in court because the statute of limitations had run out, Harney said.
After one failed money drop, Harney said she picked up a call, where Jefferson told her that her mother had failed the task and that he would "get" Harney.
“Before I hung up, I basically dared him to try," she told the court Thursday. "I knew the threat to my life was real, but I was infuriated. Jefferson thought I would twitch like prey. He was wrong. Anger is stronger than fear and I had run out of patience with the murderous narcissist torturing my mom and disrupting my life again."
After one last attempted money drop in Denver, where nobody showed up, the messages and letters stopped.
“He made murder and extortion — something most only experience at the movies or on TV — part of our reality," she said.
The years turned to decades. New leaders moved in and out of the sheriff office.
But in February 2021, Douglas County Sheriff's Office authorities boarded a plane for Los Angeles, obtained a water bottle Jefferson had used to test for his DNA and confirmed it was a match for Jefferson. This was in addition to other scene DNA that had been tested.
On March 23, 2021, Jefferson, who had been living in New Orleans at the time, was arrested in Los Angeles.
Crime
Arrest made in 1985 killing of Douglas County man
He was extradited back to Colorado and brought to the Douglas County Jail, where he faced charges of first-degree murder (after deliberation), first-degree murder (felony), first-degree kidnapping (imprisoning or forcibly hiding a person and seriously injuring them), conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and sentence enhancers.
Seventeen days after he was extradited, a woman who worked with Roger in 1985 called a tip line to say Jefferson was her boyfriend at the time of the murder.
In June 2022, Jefferson pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
ALLEGATIONS AGAINST ANALYST ACCUSED OF MISHANDLING 1,000+ CASES
On an afternoon in November 2023, news broke about CBI facing a criminal investigation after authorities discovered anomalies in an employee's work as part of DNA testing in the lab. The employee was identified as Yvonne "Missy" Woods, who had worked at CBI for 29 years.
She left the agency that month, just before CBI's announcement about the anomalies.
CBI announced that day that they had started an internal affairs investigation in September, and the results from that were completed and publicly shared in March. The report reads that she altered, manipulated or deleted data in DNA testing in hundreds of cases. Woods omitted material facts in official criminal justice records, tampered with DNA testing results by omitting some results, and violated CBI’s Code of Conduct and CBI laboratory policies, CBI reported, adding that the manipulations appear to have been intentional, but no motive was named.
The state has allocated about $7.4 million to CBI to address the fallout of the investigation. Of that, CBI has spent more than $67,000 so far: more than $58,000 on DNA retesting in 37 cases requested by local district attorneys, and more than $8,000 reimbursed to district attorneys conducting post-conviction reviews involving cases Woods handled.
Denver7 Investigates
How an investigation into a former CBI scientist caused a ripple effect
As first reported by Denver7 in December, CBI finished its review of all cases Woods was involved in and found 1,003 impacted cases, including the homicide of Roger Dean.
A criminal investigation into the accusations against Woods is ongoing. Woods denies the allegations. She is cooperating with law enforcement.
We took a deep dive into how much retesting will cost, the backlogs caused as a result, and more in our video below.
HOW THIS CASE WAS IMPACTED BY ALLEGED DNA MANIPULATIONS
After Jefferson pleaded not guilty to charges in 2022, court documents show a string of trials set and then vacated or continued.
The final trial date was vacated in August 2024 because a plea agreement was reached on Aug. 6, 2024, Eric Ross, spokesperson for the 18th Judicial District Attorney, told Denver7 last fall.
The reason for the plea agreement?
"This case, this investigation, is tainted by the work of one individual from CBI," the prosecution said Thursday. "While some of her work helped solve this case, it most certainly also forced it to resolve. And to resolve with a plea agreement that fails in many ways to hold the defendant accountable — accountable for his actions against the Dean family, his actions against the community.”
Per the plea agreement, Jefferson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, a Class 2 felony. All other charges — which included first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping — were dropped.
Jefferson's defense attorney Michael Faye confirmed to Denver7 last fall that Woods was the primary analyst on this case for the DNA and serology, and that Jefferson's case was "listed by CBI as having anomalies in Ms. Woods' work on the case." He also confirmed that the alleged manipulations were one of the factors in the plea deal that was ultimately offered.
The prosecution stressed that if the case against Jefferson had gone to trial instead of a plea agreement, Woods' alleged manipulation of DNA could have put a conviction in jeopardy. That still stands despite several DNA testing groups outside of CBI confirming Jefferson's involvement, she and Sheriff Darren Weekly said.
“When this trial started, we were confident the evidence would deliver a sentence of life in prison, until CBI was called into question," Harney said. "Fearing negative press coverage would cause someone on the jury to question if the DNA was tainted, we agreed to a plea. Given trial delays, the debacle with Missy Woods — I think it’s a good thing that mom wasn’t here to witness this. If she wasn’t already dead, this process would have killed her.”
In court Thursday, sheriffs that span Douglas County's history spoke about how the office continued to pursue the case over the decades, as Jefferson flew all over the world, raised children and grew a business until his arrest.
Twenty-third District Attorney George Brauchler, who had been in the position for barely 48 hours, stated that Jefferson did not have a history of substance abuse, was not a gang member and was holding down a job. Therefore, Jefferson knew better, he stressed.
No matter the sentencing, he said it wouldn't feel like justice because of Woods' alleged actions with the DNA.
"The great irony of this case is the DNA that brought him into this courtroom should have been enough," he said. "But the person who processed it was so flawed and broken — and her name is Missy Woods — that she presented such a risk that we already had to bake in extra mercy for him. We had to put him into a position where no matter what this court says today, he could be paroled in his mid-70s. And that is awful."
Defense attorney Faye spoke briefly about Jefferson's upbringing. He was never in trouble. Studied hard to get good grades. Worked in the medical field. He taught GED classes. Traveled the world. He raised children and invested in real estate construction to flip houses, which he was successful in, Faye said. Between when he was 28 at the time of the homicide and now, Jefferson has not had a single criminal episode, he said.
Several letters in Jefferson's support had been submitted to the court for the judge to read. They were written by respected people, Faye said, including doctors, lawyers and engineers. They were not read in court.
Faye argued that Jefferson's plea represents his accountability and asked for a 16-year sentence, the minimum allowed.
Aside from the judge, Jefferson was the final person to address the court Thursday.
He began by stating that he has always complied with state and federal laws. He urged his loved ones to remember his character.
“In regards to the tragic loss of Mr. Dean’s life and the pain and grief the family has suffered — I can only imagine their hunger for justice and closure. That’s something I would feel too," he said, adding that he hopes his plea brings some peace and closure.
All of that led up to 4 p.m. Thursday, when all eyes turned back to Judge Victoria Klingensmith.
The judge started with an apology to Harney for the loss of both parents, as well as to Gibson for what she endured as a 9-year-old murder witness. She then addressed Jefferson, stating she was puzzled about how a man who seemed to have been such a productive and liked member in the community had committed the crime.
Judge Klingensmith said she struggled to see any remorse or accountability from Jefferson.
She then sentenced him to 32 years in prison, the maximum allowed under the plea agreement. She awarded 1,382 days of pre-sentence confinement.
After the sentencing, Harney said the defendant still had not taken accountability, but she was thankful to have reached a sentence.
“I'm very sorry that it wasn't the full life in prison, but I'm grateful for all the work that's been done to get us where we are here today and to remember my dad," she said. "He didn't deserve the end that he had. My family didn't deserve to go through everything that they did... I can't tell you how relieved I am that after almost 40 years, we are finally here today with a sentence of 32 years.”
- Hear more from Harney and law enforcement involved in this case in the press conference below
Want to learn more about Colorado's solved cold cases?
In 2021, Denver7 looked at several cases where genetic genealogy was used to help law enforcement and prosecutors get closer to a suspect. We dug through file footage, heard from family members, and interviewed those who are on the front lines of using genetic genealogy to help crack cold cases.
You can watch the "Cold No More" special below.