Transcript GOLDEN 12/27/12
Golden
December 27, 2012
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourgoldennews.com
Jefferson County, Colorado • Volume 147, Issue 4
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hristmas surprise For one Golden family, the best gift is just holding a loved one By Glenn Wallace
gwallace@ourcoloradonews.com A father picked up his son from kindergarten at Pleasant View Elementary in Golden on Dec. 17 and hugged him tight. That hug was 10 months in the making for 5-yearold William since his father, Petty Officer Third Class Eric Beattie, had just returned from deployment to Afghanistan. W i l l i a m’s William Beattie, left, hugs his father Navy sailor Eric Beattie as he surprises his son at Pleasant View Elementary Dec. 17 mom later said that he called it
in Golden. Beattie is on a 30-day leave from military duties in Afghanistan. Photo by Andy Carpenean
“the best surprise of his whole life.” After the embrace, Beattie wiped away a tear, and answered a few questions for his son’s class. “What do you do?” asked one student in Mr. Jordan’s kindergarten class. “I work on the fighter jets for the Navy,” Beattie replied. “Do you fight bad guys?” Another student asked. “Yeah.” “Do you like your job?” “I love my job.” After the Q and A, the students left the room, leaving the three Beattie boys to play around the feet of their father and mother while friends, parents, and grandparents who had shown up for the surprise snapped pictures. William said he was happy to have his dad back for Christmas. The family had thought Beattie would not be able to return until after New Year’s. “He’s a superhero,” the son said. Beattie had been stationed at Camp Dwyer in Afghanistan, while his ship was in dry dock, where he handled customs for troops headed back to the United States. “We sent home 5,911 Marines,” checking over their gear and weap-
ons, Beattie said. The Afghanistan deployment marked the fifth in seven years for Beattie, and his wife Kayla Beattie admitted she was worried about this one. “That’s why it was important that he call me every day if he could,” Kayla Beattie said. Beattie said the assignment was safe, inside a well-fortified camp, but that he did see combat troops return from outside the wire. “They’re tired, beat up, and everybody wants to go home,” Beattie said. Beattie said he also had to check the belongings of those who never would make that return trip. “That’s more of a weight on your psyche,” he said. Beattie might be home for now, but the life of a military family is rarely peaceful. On Dec. 29 the Beatties will be moving to Lemoore, Calif., where Beattie will be stationed through 2014. For now, for the holidays, Beattie gets to just be home with his three sons. Beattie said that he barely had a week with his youngest son before he had to ship out. “I’m just going to relax, and spend time with the family,” he said.
Golden going without pro tour Third time is not the charm, as cycling race routed elsewhere By Glenn Wallace
gwallace@ourcoloradonews. com There will be no third rotation of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge through Golden in 2013. The route for next year’s weeklong professional cycling race was revealed in a press conference last week, and skips Golden entirely, in favor of more time in the mountains, and stops in new destinations like Loveland and Fort
Collins. Golden local race organizer Dan Dwyer said he received a call from race CEO Shawn Hunter on Dec, 18, the day before the official announcement, to break the news. “He was very apologetic. He said Golden has been a terrific example of how a city can do a stage,” Dwyer said. He added that, after two consecutive years of being on the route list, Golden was not overly surprised to not make a
third consecutive route list. “If you look back historically for something like the Tour de France, they do go through the same places, but maybe not year after year, so the riders aren’t doing the same thing again and again,” Dwyer said. “They can’t choose every city that bids,” said Golden co-race organizer and city employee Julie Brooks. The 2013 iteration of the race will start on Aug. 19 in Aspen, be-
fore visiting the mountain communities of Breckenridge, Steamboat Springs and Beaver Creek, then venturing into the new territory of northern Colorado with stops in Loveland and Fort Collins. In what has become a traditional finale for the race, the week of competition ends with a circuit race in downtown Denver. Even though the peloton of professional riders may not be rolling through the streets of Golden next August, Brooks and Dwyer said local race boosters would still organize a few related cycling events that local cyclists
participated in this year: The time trial hill climb up Lookout Mountain, and the women’s clinic and ride. Brooks said that getting a bit of a break from race organizing in 2013 would be an opportunity to “reinvigorate the enthusiasm,” of the volunteer base. Of course, there is also the small matter of planning for a potential 2014 stage. “There’s no guarantee we’ll get 2014,” Dwyer admitted, “but we’d like to come back bigger and better than ever.”
Confession cancels DeWild retrial Dan DeWild pleads guilty to murder of wife By Glenn Wallace gwallace@ourcoloradonews. com Daniel Norman DeWild stood in court on Thursday, Dec. 20, and confessed to killing his estranged wife nine years ago. Prosecutors had charged DeWild, 40, with first-degree mur-
der, saying he lured his wife into his Edgewater home, hit her in the head with a hammer and hanged her from a rafter while he wrapped her body in plastic. “Mr. DeWild, is that true, did you do that?” Judge Christopher J. Munch asked the defendant. “Yes, sir,” DeWild responded. A two-week trial in November
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ended with a mixed verdict for DeWild. The jury found him guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, but could not reach a unanimous verdict on the charge of first-degree murder. A re-trial had been scheduled to begin in January on the murder charge, until Thursday’s plea deal, which saw DeWild confess in open court to second-degree murder for the killing of Heather DeWild, in exchange for a total prison sentence of between 72 to 75 years. DeWild is currently in county jail, and will be formally sentenced on Feb. 28. According to District Attorney’s Office Investigator David Dechant, DeWild will not be eligible for parole for at least 27 years.
“Our office, we oppose parole, believing that the convicted should serve their sentence,” Dechant said. “It has been a long time coming,” First Judicial District Attorney Scott Storey told the media following the verdict. Storey began a task force to try and break the cold case in 2005, after Heather DeWild’s parents met with him and asked for assistance. “It was the effort of so many (investigators and prosecutors) and the patience of the Springer family,” Storey said. “Today we got some justice for Heather DeWild.” Daniel DeWild’s twin brother, David DeWild, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, and testified against his brother. He is scheduled to be sentenced in January. David’s wife, Mary Roseanne DeWild, was also charged with murder in investigators initial in-
dictment, but later had all charges against her dropped as investigators came to believe she had little to no knowledge of the crime. Heather DeWild’s father, David Springer, said hearing a confession from Daniel DeWild was the best thing to happen in the course of the investigation and prosecution, “because we got the words out of his own mouth.” The plea agreement also spares the Springer family from the burden of another trial. “It was emotional and heartwrenching, and the thought of going through that again was tough,” said Rebecca Barger, Heather DeWild’s sister.
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