Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Crime Watch 10/02/25

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
By SAM KLOMHAUS Sam.Klomhaus@gjsentinel.com 
October 2, 2025

The 21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office has filed a motion asking the Colorado Supreme Court to review the ordering of a new trial for a man convicted of two murders in 1993. 

James Genrich, 62, is serving a life sentence in the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Buena Vista after he was convicted of setting pipe bombs that killed Maria Delores Gonzales and Henry Ruble in a series of pipe bombings that lasted from 1989 to 1991. 

Genrich was granted a new trial by Judge Richard Gurley in 2023 after Gurley found tool mark evidence used to connect Genrich to the bombs was faulty.

_{Inmate photo of James Genrich} 

During Genrich’s trial, ATF agent John O’Neil testified that tool marks on wires recovered from an unexploded pipe bomb matched pliers and wire cutters owned by Genrich to the exclusion of all other tools.

Genrich has maintained his innocence since his arrest.

Genrich’s attorneys, who include The Innocence Project, brought witnesses who argued there are flaws with the way the tool mark analysis was done in Genrich’s case, and with tool mark analysis as a forensic science in general.

A National Academy of Sciences committee studying tool mark analysis found that tool mark examiners had been overstating the certainty and reliability of their abilities to match individual tools to individual marks.

In ordering a new trial, Gurley stated the prosecution’s case largely rested on O’Neil’s testimony and without it, Genrich would have likely been acquitted.

The Colorado Court of Appeals upheld Gurley’s ruling in May.

In asking the Colorado Supreme Court to review the case, the 21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office argued Gurley may have overstated the likelihood of Genrich’s acquittal without O’Neil’s testimony, which related to the only physical evidence linking Genrich with the bombs.

The filing also asked the Colorado Supreme Court to weigh in on how cases should be treated when new science comes to light.

The filing stated experts presented by Genrich’s defense at an evidentiary hearing in front of Gurley in 2022 did not present evidence that someone other than Genrich had planted the bombs.

“There is no indication in the record that the newly discovered evidence in this case challenging the science, impeaching the methods, and questioning the bias of O’Neil is affirmatively demonstrative of Genrich’s innocence,” the filing stated. “It does not suggest that someone else probably committed the crime, that Genrich did not commit the crime, or that no crime was committed.”

The filing also stated the expert witnesses presented by Genrich’s defense had not reviewed the evidence in Genrich’s case, but were testifying regarding the field of tool mark analysis as a whole, whereas the expert witnesses presented by the prosecution had in fact reviewed the evidence.

“Genrich’s experts were all academics who lambasted the lack of scientific basis for toolmark analysis and lamented the field’s susceptibility to bias, but none of them had ever looked at the evidence in the case nor had ever done a single toolmark analysis; and none of them testified that Genrich’s tool did not or could not have made the marks at issue,” the filing stated.

At the time, the prosecution’s witnesses testified that tool mark analysis involves pattern matching under a microscope, although it generally doesn’t involve taking measurements.

All the experts presented by the prosecution said most of their professional experience was in the field of firearms examination, not tool mark analysis.

Jury convicts man accused of ordering shooting

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
By SAM KLOMHAUS Sam.Klomhaus@gjsentinel.com 
Sep 30, 2025 Updated Sep 30, 2025

A Mesa County jury has convicted a man accused of ordering a drive-by shooting in June 2023 of attempted first degree murder and illegal discharge of a firearm.

Devin Atencio, 36, was found not guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.

Atencio was arrested in January 2024 after police said an investigation into a drive-by shooting in June 2023 found he had given the “green light” for the shooting.

Around 4 a.m. on June 5, 2023, police responded to an address near North 20th Street. The residence in question was struck by bullets eight times, police said.

_{Inmate photo of Devin Atencio}  

No injuries were reported in the shooting.

During Atencio’s week-long trial, which ended Thursday, prosecutors said he was the “OG” (original gangster), or head of a Clifton-based gang, members of which were believed to have committed the shooting.

Atencio’s defense argued he was not in charge of the gang, and that some of Atencio’s sons friends sometimes referred to him as “OG” as a term of endearment.

“It’s just kind of a culture thing,” Atencio said when he took the stand.

Some members of the gang, including Junior Ramirez, who is believed to have committed the shooting, as well as one of Atencio’s sons, told the jury Atencio was not the leader of the gang.

Police said Ramirez, who was in a “beef” with one of the residents of the house, exchanged direct messages on Instagram with an account believed to belong to Atencio about two weeks before the shooting occurred.

According to Atencio’s arrest affidavit, the account believed to belong to Atencio asked Ramirez to call on the phone. After the call ended, Ramirez messaged someone else on Instagram saying he had the “green light.”

Atencio denied ownership of the Instagram account to police.

Ramirez had the phone number associated with Atencio saved in his phone as “OG,” according to the affidavit. Ramirez also referred to Atencio as his “OG” in a recorded jail phone call.

During the trial, Savage said Atencio’s story has changed since he was first contacted by police.

Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 19.