DENVER — The suspect accused of murdering a security guard in a downtown Denver parking garage was released from jail four days before the killing even though he was facing a new charge of assaulting a jail deputy.
Court records show Caleb Schroeder was arrested or cited six times in 2018, including a February robbery in Aurora in which a man reported being beaten and robbed by a group of men that included Schroeder.
While Schroeder was in the Arapahoe County Jail, he was accused of assaulting a deputy by throwing bodily fluids at the deputy on May 10.
A sheriff’s office spokesperson said investigators turned in their arrest affidavit on the assault charges May 16 to the district attorney’s office, but an arrest warrant was not issued until May 23 – two days after Schroeder had been released from jail.
By that point, he had reached plea deals in the robbery case, a methamphetamine possession case, and a criminal mischief case. In all three of those cases, court records show Schroeder was sentenced to probation.
The 18th Judicial District Attorney's office tells Denver7 the prosecutor who agreed to the plea deals assumed that Schroeder would stay in jail because of the pending assault case but did not realize the warrant had not yet been issued.
Four days after his release from jail, Schroeder allegedly stabbed security guard Scott Tice to death in the parking garage at the Denver Center Arts Complex.