Motions Hearing for Hanme Clark in Triple Homicide Case

by George Gramlich
A Motions Hearing was held by 11th Judicial District Judge Lauren Swan at the Custer County Courthouse Tuesday, March 18. The hearing started at 8:30 a.m. It concerned the alleged triple murder of three Custer County residents by one Hanme K. Clark.
Clark was present at the hearing. He is currently being held at the Pueblo County Jail with a $2 million cash bond requirement.
The hearing concerned various motions by the defense counsel regarding late or missing evidence (called “discovery” items) and a request by the defense to reduce Clark’s bail.
If you recall, Clark is accused of murdering three of his neighbors and attempted to murder a fourth. The deceased victims were Rob Geer, Beth Wade, James Daulton. The wounded survivor was Patti Daulton. The attack occurred on November 20, 2023, at around the nine-mile marker on Oak Creek Grade (County Road 255).
At the hearing, Clark was represented by Janene K. McCabe, a very expensive private attorney hired by the Colorado Public Defenders office for this case. (See the end of this article for more information on Clark’s publicly paid for defense team.) Our 11th Judicial District DA, Jeff Lindsey, represented the People.
Lindsey opened the hearing with an explanation of why some of the “discovery” (i.e., evidence) was not disclosed to the defense in a timely manner or not disclosed at all. Lindsey laid blame on the prior, disbarred DA, Linda Stanley for failing to do her job. He said when he took over in November 2024 that he, and his office, have spent an enormous amount of time catching up with the evidence issues. Lindsey noted that he has had multiple meetings with the defense and they “were on good terms”.
The defense then was next. McCabe went on a long review of alleged discovery problems mostly around the evidence rule, “Rule 16”, with regards to timely evidence turnover. McCabe was particularly concerned that at the Preliminary Hearing last month, where Sheriff Smith and Detective Sergeant Elizabeth Robinson testified that the defense did not have the footage from their body cams when they were at the crime scene. This, the defense alleged, was a problem when they were examined by the defense, as defense did not have the body cam footage which could have raised some undiscovered issues. The overall gist of the defense allegations was “that substantial evidence was not disclosed before the Preliminary Hearing.”
Lindsey answered that the body cam footage was uploaded to the state designated evidence system the day after the crime.
The other defense issue concerned phone calls made by Clark from his time in the New Mexico jail (where he was caught) and from the Pueblo County Jail (where he is now). His calls were recorded by law enforcement at both locations. (In Pueblo, it was the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI).) Apparently, defense had problems with the listening to the recordings of the New Mexico calls but eventually figured it out. Defense complained that CBI was very late in turning over Clark’s Pueblo calls.
McCabe then circled back to the issue of not having certain evidence before the Preliminary Hearing regarding Sheriff
Smith’s and Detective Sergeant Robinson’s testimony. The defense wanted “sanctions” against the DA for all these alleged
infractions.
Judge Swan then spoke. She said that there were Rule 16 discovery violations and that DA Lindsey had been doing a good job at trying to remedy the issues that his predecessor caused. Judge Swan said that she would offer the defense two options to remedy the violations. One, the Judge would re-open the Preliminary Hearing to allow defense to cross-examine Smith and Robinson now that the defense has the body cam footage, or Two, the Judge would issue a jury instruction during the trial explaining the whole thing to the jury. Judge Swan said she would not consider a dismissal or a reduction in charges.
McCabe chose Option One, re-opening of the Preliminary Hearing. This will be on April 1, 2025, at 10:30 a.m.
The next issue in this hearing was the request from defense to move Clark from the Pueblo County Jail to the Fremont County Jail. McCabe alleged there were issues in seeing Clark in Pueblo and getting him out for court hearings. The defense also stated that when Clark first arrived there, he was assaulted and beat up pretty bad and had to go to the hospital to get stitches, Clark also suffered a concussion from the attack.
DA Lindsey responded that Custer County Sheriff had placed Clark in Pueblo rather than Fremont for a variety of reasons including that there have been five escapes from the Fremont jail in the last two years. Lindsey also noted that by statute, the Sheriff is responsible for jail placement and not the courts. Judge Swan reflected on this a bit and decided to not do anything.
The final topic of the hearing was a request by the defense to reduce Clark’s cash only bond of $2 million. Lindsey gave a stirring speech on the crime and Clark’s background which included a prior felony conviction in Colorado and a violent misdemeanor conviction in Idaho. Lindsey noted that Clark fled the state after the crime. Judge Swan then asked if any victims might want to testify and Patti Dalton responded that she would like to.
Patti got up and stood behind the prosecutor’s table. She said she had a prepared statement to read. Patti said she “opposed” any reduction in bond. In heart breaking statements, Patti said she “fears for her life every second of every day” and “every semblance of my life is gone”. She pleaded with the judge not to reduce bail so that Clark could get out.
DA Lindsey then took his turn reviewing some horrendous details of the alleged crimes stating that it was a “cold blooded triple murder” caused by Clark’s obsession with alleged trespassing. Closing, Lindsey related the content on the 911 call Mr. Dalton made as he was lying on the ground, shot and dying. Lindsey said the only words on the call made by Mr. Dalton was, “Stop…….Stop……Stop…..” as the dispatcher heard gunshot after gunshot in the background. (The reaction in the courtroom to this was horrific as many
were crying.)
The son of victim Beth Wade Geer then testified via telephone saying that Clark had shot his “grey haired” sixty-one-year-old mother six times and that Clark should not get any bail reduction.
The judge then gave her ruling reviewing some the details of the crime, especially concerning Clark’s capture out of state. She also stated that she “can’t disregard community safety”. Eventually she denied “modification of the bond”.
So the $2 million cash bond still stands.
The re-opened Preliminary Hearing is set for April 1, 2025 at 10:30 a.m. There will also be a Motions Hearing after that.
The trial is set for June 16, 2025.
(Editor/GG: You won’t believe the amount of money the State of Colorado is spending to defend Clark on this alleged triple murder. It is a David vs. Goliath deal. Our David is District Attorney Jeff Lindsey with his tiny staff. Goliath is the Colorado Pubic Defender’s office with an apparently unlimited cash resources to hire a whole slew of private attorney’s supplementing the public defender attorney’s on the case.
Defense Attorney McCabe is no country bumpkin. She is a very experienced homicide attorney and, get this, is President of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar!
Imagine what her hourly rate is. Colorado also hired two other expensive private attorney’s for the case: Alison Paige Gordon and Ian Hudson Mcdavid. Plus there are two Public Defender attorney’s on the case: Adam Robert Tunink and Emilee A. Woodfin. So Clark has FIVE attorneys, paid by us citizens versus DA Jeff Lindsey.
The Colorado criminal justice system is broke on so many levels it is no wonder Colorado, once a truly safe, rural place, is one of the top crime ridden states in the nation. And this outrageous waste of money spent by Colorado to defend this guy is obscene and just another example of the self-destructive nature of liberalism. God help us.)