Colorado’s second-highest court reversed a defendant’s convictions out of Weld County last week, concluding the victim’s identification was unreliable and may have been the product of police influence.
In August 2019, a teenage pizza delivery driver was leaving his job. Just after he closed the door to his vehicle, a man opened it, told the driver to move into the passenger seat and gave the impression he had a gun. The victim fled out the passenger door and the perpetrator drove off.
Police identified Ivan Jose Gallegos-Valdez as the culprit. Although his DNA was on items near a bench close to the robbery site, DNA and fingerprints from items in the recovered vehicle did not match Gallegos-Valdez. Prosecutors charged him with aggravated robbery, menacing and aggravated motor vehicle theft. Jurors convicted him and Gallegos-Valdez received 12 years in prison…