09 25 25 Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams on arrest and release of Ephraim Debisa

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now on Colorado's Morning News, the governor signing off on
a new competency law last year that mandates judges did
dismiss cases against suspects found incompetent and not restorable to
stand trial. The new law coming under scrutiny today after
a man arrested repeatedly is arrested once again. Kaway's Niabinger
spoke with World County Sheriff Steve Reems.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams was incredibly vocal about the
release of a very dangerous twenty one year old man.
A couple of weeks ago, Reams was forced to release
from DEBISA after he was found to be incompetent to
stand trial in an attempted murder case. Now Ephraim is
in trouble again.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
A warrant was issued for him last night from an
incident that occurred at the University of Northern Colorado campus
where he allegedly brought a weapon on air style air
fifteen style weapon under the school ground. The UNCPD investigated
that incident, obtained a warrant for his arrest, and then
my officers along with the Greeley Police Department, were able

(00:56):
to locate the individual and take him into custody as
parents house where he was hiding in their basement.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Where do you get the ar from?

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Well, that's a great question. I don't know exactly where
he got the weapon from. We haven't recovered that weapon.
That part of the investigation is ongoing. We know that
he had another person with him while he was at
the University of Northern Colorado, so that part of the
investigation continues, and when we can figure all that information out,
we're going to obviously try to apply the fullest extent

(01:24):
of criminal charges that we can't. All.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Right, Well, for all the good that does.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Right, that's correct. As we've talked about before, this individual
keeps being ruled incompetent to stand trial because of his
level of cognitive ability. I guess he's not mentally ill.
He doesn't have a mental illness. He just flat out
doesn't seem to care about his consequences, and because of that,
he keeps getting these rulings of incompetent to stand trial.
The one thing that might be different in this particular

(01:49):
instance is there is a potential for federal charges to apply,
and that might take him out of this screwed up
state system that our legislators have provided for us.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
I know that you warned about this guy. I think
it was earlier this month, wasn't it.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, it was I think less than two weeks ago.
One was forced to release this individual and I said,
he'll be back. The only hope is that you know
he doesn't hurt someone or himself. Luckily we don't have
any injuries, but we definitely had the potential for it
if he's carrying a firearm onto a school campus. I mean,

(02:26):
I think the ramifications of that are pretty easily for
easily understood for most anyone, especially with the person who's
has the criminal history that this guy has.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Can you give me a little bit of a breakdown
in a way that people are going to understand what
this new law does and how something like this even happens.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
The best breakdown I can provide. And it's hard to
make sense of this law because it makes no sense,
so trying to explain it to people is very difficult.
But ultimately, there's a very short window for someone to
be found competent to stand trial if that issue is
raised in the court process. Once that person has given
a ruling that they're incompetent to stand trial. It triggers

(03:04):
a time frame that they have to be released if
there is no other alternative, such as a mental healthhold
or a stay in the state hospital. So, in this
particular individual's case, like I said, it's not that he
has a mental illness, he just has a very low
understanding of the criminal justice system, of our social norms

(03:26):
here in the United States. And because of those factors,
it appears that he keeps getting an incompetency, he keeps
being found incompetent to stand trial. But his behavior is
not something that I think anyone would agree with in
any normal society, to include the way he's behaving in
my jail now that he's been books back in. He's

(03:46):
uncooperative and definitely combative with my staff.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
At what point do we say enough is enough? And
people that leave somebody with a traumatic brain injury like
he did with a twenty seven year old guy who
is going through we have and everything else's result, why
is it okay to release this person?

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Well, that's a great question, and quite honestly, I don't
think it is okay to release this person. You know,
That's why I raised the issue last time. He should
have never been released from my custody. But there's a
giant failure in Colorado state law. And it doesn't matter
how many times I've said, call for a special session, Governor.
Governor Polus, call a special session and fix this. You

(04:24):
signed the law that created this problem. Call a special
session and create a lot of fix it. You have
the authority to do that. You can call the legislature
back into session and fix this issue. Do it. Someone's
going to get hurt, and this person is a prime
example of how that happens.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
The arrest set off a war of words between Governor
Jared Poulus and many others, including Elon musk on X.
We did reach out to Governor pull Us and he
had this response. I am relieved this individual's in custody,
and I want to thank the local law enforcement who
apprehended mister Ephraim, who was demonstrated that he's a day
to himself and others. The state shared information, engaged with

(05:03):
local and federal law enforcement in Colorado and was ready
to support prior to this individual being taken into custody.
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