Indy Pass hostage taker may accept plea next month
A Colorado Springs realtor who was scheduled to go on trial in December for allegedly taking three strangers hostage at gunpoint and terrorizing them indicated Monday he would instead accept a plea deal in the case.
Brolin McConnell, 33, was set to be tried over 10 days starting Dec. 3 on 18 felony counts, including attempted first-degree murder. However, on Monday, McConnell’s lawyer said his client would enter a plea Dec. 3, and District Judge Chris Seldin vacated the trial dates.
Details of the plea deal were not announced Monday in Pitkin County District Court, and prosecutor Don Nottingham declined to comment on the deal.
McConnell allegedly took the three young men hostage on Lincoln Creek Road on Independence Pass in July 2016 and repeatedly threatened to kill them. All three men escaped from McConnell, who was armed with two handguns, without physical injuries.
He initially pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, then more than a year later — in December 2017 — changed his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity. That put his case in a holding pattern for 14 months until McConnell could be examined by psychiatrists at the state hospital in Pueblo.
Those psychiatrists eventually found McConnell sane, though he’s since been examined by a private psychiatrist. The results of that exam have not been released publicly.
Finalists announced for Aspen’s next police chief
Five high-ranking, law-enforcement officers, all in Colorado and two in Aspen, have made the final cut in the city’s search for a new police chief.
