Now, here we have a profile of a perp that not only murdered a young Boulder girl, but used a stun gun and duct tape, who reportedly had been on a cocaine binge for weeks. This is the likely profile of the perp, IMO, that entered the Ramsey home...wrote the rambling ransom note, based on his interest in technomovies.....and brutally murdered JonBenet. I've never used cocaine or methamphetamine, so don't know their effects on a brain----but I wouldn't be surprised the perp was an addict---and it was not some middle-aged friend (or former friend) of the Ramseys.

Cocaine part of murder case
By Christopher Anderson
Camera Staff Writer

ADAMS COUNTY — A man suspected of killing a Boulder teenager in January was on a cocaine binge for weeks and threatened to "kill someone" just hours before the victim was found shot to death, attorneys said in court Friday.

Shawn Balbas Souva, 21, is being held without bond on first-degree murder charges in connection with the death of 17-year-old Mary Rogers.

Rogers, a student at Quest Academy high school in Boulder, was found beaten, bound with duct tape and chains with shackles, choked with a cord and shot execution-style in Souva's Westminster apartment on Jan. 9, a medical examiner testified Friday.

She also suffered a broken nose, cuts and bruises all over her body and had been shocked with a high-powered stun gun before her death, said Larimer County Coroner Patrick Allen, who contracts with Adams County.

District Attorney Bob Grant said Friday that prosecutors will meet within the next three months to determine whether to pursue the death penalty.

Adams County Judge Donald W. Marshall ordered Souva to stand trial for the death following Friday's nearly six-hour preliminary hearing in which prosecutors laid out parts of their case for the first time.

Senior Trial Deputy Cynthia Kowert said laboratory reports show that Souva had gunshot residue on his hands, possible evidence that he fired the .38-caliber handgun that killed Rogers.

Souva's attorney, Harvey Steinberg, got a detective to admit on the stand that gunshot residue can be transferred to hands simply by touching something with the residue on it.

Witnesses said they saw Souva days before the killing with a black handgun matching the type thought to be used in Rogers' death.

Kowert said Souva made several contradictory statements to friends the night of the death, and, hours before police found Rogers' body, he told friends details of the crime that "only the killer would know."

She also pointed to witness statements that Souva was obsessed with his former girlfriend, Samantha Riley-Olsen, Rogers' best friend. According to police testimony, witnesses said Souva was angry that Rogers was spending so much time with Riley-Olsen that the former girlfriend did not have time for him.

Westminster police testified that witnesses said Souva had been on cocaine for weeks before the killing. Friends of Souva said he was not sleeping or eating and appeared to be having hallucinations.

Just four days before Rogers' death, Souva called police to report a criminal mischief incident involving laser beams. An officer noted in his report on the incident that he could find no evidence of what Souva was talking about and that it appeared Souva was high on drugs.

Detectives said that hours before the killing, Souva met with two drug traffickers at the La Quinta Inn in Louisville who helped him purchase an "eight-ball" of cocaine from a dealer in Denver or Lakewood.

The two men who helped Souva purchase the cocaine said they later went back to his apartment, where at one point Souva suddenly said, "I am going to kill someone," according to police testimony.

"He is responsible for Mary Rogers' death," Kowert told the judge in closing arguments.

Souva's attorney gave only a brief closing argument, but said that Souva's contradicting statements were probably the result of his mental condition from not eating or sleeping.

He questioned detectives about witnesses' statements that Rogers helped "run drugs" and was in the middle of a rivalry between two large-scale drug dealers.

One of the dealer's offered Rogers $5,000 for the address of the rival dealer, according to police testimony. The other dealer made threats to Rogers, officers said.

Lab tests reported that both Souva and Rogers had cocaine in their system.

Allen, the coroner, said that it did not appear that Rogers had used cocaine "recently." But he said that meant she had not ingested the drug within at least an hour of her death.

Contact Christopher Anderson at (303) 473-1355 or andersonc@thedailycamera.com.

April 14, 2001