Trial dates set in Aspen carbon monoxide deaths case

ASPEN – A judge ruled Thursday that two local men will stand separate trials for the carbon monoxide poisoning deaths of a Denver family of four in an Aspen-area home in 2008.

The case of Marlin Brown, a subcontractor, is scheduled to go to a two-week trial beginning Nov. 28 – exactly three years after the discovery of the family members in a house where they were vacationing, at 10 Popcorn Lane, about 4 miles east of Aspen.

Erik Peltonen, a former city of Aspen building inspector who worked on the county’s behalf when the house was subject to government inspection, is scheduled for trial starting Dec. 12.

In July 2010, a Pitkin County grand jury, after a series of private court sessions over the period of one year, indicted Brown and Peltonen on four, separate negligent-homicide charges.

Following months of legal wrangling, they pleaded not guilty to the charges in June, setting their right to a speedy trial in motion.

Grand Junction attorney Colleen Scissors represents Brown, 57. Abraham Hutt of Denver is counsel for Peltonen, 69.

The charges are a result of the fatalities of Caroline Lofgren, 42; her husband, Parker, 39; and their two children, Owen, 10, and Sophie, 8. They had won a stay at the home, which did not have a carbon monoxide detector at the time of their deaths, at an auction at their Denver school.