DENVER — A bipartisan bill introduced within Colorado's State Capitol would limit the court's ability to issue personal recognizance (PR) bonds to certain violent offenders.
“A PR bond is when somebody is let out on bond without having to post any sort of monetary pledge," said State Representative Shannon Bird. "So somebody is let out on their promise to come back to the court when it's time for their court date and to not commit another crime.”
House Bill 25-1072 would not allow defendants accused of violent crimes, and with probable cause in their case, to receive a PR bond. There would be exceptions if a district attorney consented to an individual receiving a PR bond.
Defendants with either a record of violent crimes within the past two years or those who are considered repeat violent offenders would not be eligible for a PR bond.
- Watch our previous investigation into the use of PR bonds in the video player below
Bird, who is one of the sponsors of the legislation, said she proposed the same bill last year but it died in committee.
"The committee that heard the bill was concerned about questioning a judge's decision. I know we had certain district attorneys come in and testify against the bill, saying that it was inappropriate for anybody else to have a say in whether a defendant would be given a PR bond, that that should be a decision within the sole discretion of our judges," Bird explained.
Another concern with the legislation last year was the $7,500 baseline it sets for a monetary condition of pretrial release for a repeat violent offender.
“People were concerned that $7,500 as a new minimum or amount for bond was perhaps punitive to people who might be unable to pay that. If you're poor, why should you have something that's unaffordable for you, where maybe a wealthy person could easily pay that and regain their freedom," Bird said. "So there were concerns about the fairness there."
According to Bird, judges could still set a higher bond for different defendants since the $7,500 monetary condition would be considered the minimum threshold.
“This is a common sense, reasonable guardrail," said Bird.
In the span of two days, four people were stabbed — two fatally — along the 16th Street Mall in Denver. Elijah Caudill, 24, was arrested in connection to the crime and charged with two counts of first-degree murder related to the deaths of Celinda Levno, 71, and Nicholas Burkett, 34. He also faces two counts of attempted murder and two counts of assault.
For Burkett's family, the days since Nicholas's death have been torture.
“Fun, charismatic, outgoing, made friends easily, just the life of the party all the time," Wayne Burkett said of his son. “He took everything with more of a whimsical attitude, something to admire.”
The family said Nicholas was homeless at the time he was killed.
"He lived down on the streets. He was a drug addict and had mental issues of his own and just trying to find his way in life," said Carol Cortez, Nicholas's mother.
Court documents show Caudill was released from jail in November 2024 on a PR bond.
“The killer’s circumstances weren't much different than my son's. He was an addicted person that probably didn't have too many places to lay his head at night, and it just seems like his circumstances don't mitigate what he did," Wayne said.
Wayne and Carol said the bill aimed at limiting PR bonds in Colorado does not go far enough.
“It feels like a futile attempt to do something. I mean, with a bondsman, $7,500 doesn't really mean anything, and the only person that stops is a homeless person," Carol said.
According to Denver's 2023 annual report on pretrial services, "bond type continues to have no impact on the success of a supervised population. While the increase in financial bonds will impact which defendants are released from custody, once released to the community, bond type does not correlate with rates of appearance or public safety."
HB25-1072 has not been scheduled for a committee as of Thursday.
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