One of Colorado’s most infamous convicted killers back in court to challenge one of his convictions

By Alan Gionet

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    ARAPAHOE, Colorado (KCNC) — A judge in Arapahoe County has been hearing testimony over the past week about a challenge to one of the convictions of Robert Ray, a former death row inmate in Colorado. Ray is asking the court to review the actions of his counsel during the case that led to his convictions for accessory to murder as well as attempted murder following a shooting in Lowry Park in Aurora in 2004.

Gregory Vann died in a shooting on July 4th, at a music festival put together by Vann and Javad Marshall Fields. Fields and another man, Elvin Bell, were also shot but survived. The trouble reportedly started when Vann and Fields tried to talk to Ray about his behavior at the festival.

“It’s really, really difficult, but it’s part of our criminal justice system to allow these appeals to keep going on and on and on,” said Rhonda Fields, mother of Javad Marshall Fields.

The following year, Marshall Fields and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe, were both shot to death ahead of a trial in the first case, at which Marshall Fields was to testify. Ray and Sir Mario Owens were convicted in both cases and sentenced to death for their murder convictions in the killings of Marshall Fields and Wolfe.

Ray is challenging his convictions in the Lowry Park case, claiming he had ineffective counsel. The judge in the case, Michelle Amico, heard testimony over several days.

“It’s painful. It’s like a punch in the stomach. Especially when you have to go in the courtroom and you see the defendant who murdered my son sitting there,” said Rhonda Fields, a former state representative and senator. She is serving as an Arapahoe County Commissioner who ran for state office after her son’s killing and has been active in advocating for victims’ rights.

Ray is currently challenging his conviction in the murders of Marshall Fields and Wolfe to the Colorado Supreme Court, which heard arguments in January. The court has yet to rule. Sir Mario Owens was the gunman, said investigators. The court has already rejected Owens’s appeal of his conviction.

The judge could rule in a variety of ways on the challenge to the Lowry Park shooting case. It has left Rhonda Fields worried.

“It’s just hard to speculate because I have no idea what the judge is going to say,” she said. Even twenty years after he son’s death, she is still attending court hearings in the legal process.

“We just have to wait and see,” said Rhonda Fields. “It’s almost like picking a scab. A sore. And we’re already very scarred as a family because of this.”

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