December 18, 2025 • 35 mins
In the first hour of today's show, Sheriff Steve Reams and talks with Alonso Archuleta about his experience with Ephraim Debisa.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the Dankplas Show. You got well.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
County Sheriff Steve Reims setting in today. I think yesterday
was Heidi and the day before that was George Brockler,
and tomorrow I believe is Christy Burton Brown if I'm
not mistaken.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
So Binga, you nailed all.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Look at that now, all from memory.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Impressive for me because sometimes I can't remember which way
to get out of the building. So having said all that,
I've been listening to you, Ryan and a lot of
your interviews over the last few days, and a common
theme that's been coming up is House Bill twenty four
Tosh ten thirty four, the competency bill here in Colorado,
and how some of the candidates for governor voted for
(00:53):
or against that particular bill. As you and the listeners
are well aware, I had a very personal interaction with
this bill because it forced me to release an inmate
from my jail by the name of Ephraim Debisa, and
that individual had been charged with attempted second degree murder
but was found incompetent to stand trial, and because of
(01:14):
House Bill twenty four to ten thirty four, with that
incompetency ruling, despite several maneuvers by the district attorney and
the county attorney, two different people, you know, they did
everything that they could under the confines of this new
law and just simply could not figure out a way
to get mister Debisa committed to a mental health facility
(01:36):
against his own will. So he goes out into the public,
and I felt like it was appropriate for me to
warn the public just so they would know exactly what
this I'm going to call him a monster was that
was going to be coming back into the community, and
basically everybody needed to have their head on a swivel.
So fast forward a little while, and I've been fortunate
(01:58):
enough to contact the victim of one of his last crimes,
and that's the victim of that attempted second degree murder.
And we're going to have that individual on in about
the four fifteen four twenty timeframe. But just to set
that up, there was a story done by CBS. Dylan
Thomas from CBS about this whole incident, and I'd just
like to go to that audio if we could ran a.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
New criminal case against a man police say keeps committing
violent crimes but can't be punished.
Speaker 6 (02:24):
Well, he's already avoided attempted murder charges because he was
deemed incompetent to stand trial. Now from Davisha is accused
of bringing a gun onto the University of Northern Colorado campus,
but he claims he has done nothing wrong. Dylan Thomas
is you're a reporter in Northern Colorado. He talked with
Davisha at the Well County jail today.
Speaker 7 (02:45):
In an exclusive interview with CBS News Colorado, Efriam de
Visa tells us he is being targeted and used as
a political example. He is back behind bars just fifteen
days after being released against the wishes of prosecutters.
Speaker 8 (03:00):
And the sheriff. Hello, Sir.
Speaker 9 (03:03):
Talking with us virtually on a blurry camera from his
jail pod, a framed Debisa told us he is an innocent.
Speaker 10 (03:10):
Man being targetated by the Sheriff's department, the police department.
Speaker 9 (03:17):
Debisa is back in custody, accused of bringing a gun
on the University of Northern Colorado campus. He'd been free
just over two weeks since a legal loophole mandated he'd
be released from jail after an arrest for attempted murder.
Weld County Sheriff Steve Reames wasn't surprised to hear about
the new arrest.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I guess the only shock is that no one got hurt.
I really expected that he would victimize another person. His
criminal history had shown that he pretty much has no
regard for the law. He judge a person by their
past behavior, and his past behavior has been one that
he has no remorse for what he did.
Speaker 9 (03:51):
That past behavior includes allegedly knocking men out and continuing
to hit.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
Them while they were down.
Speaker 9 (03:57):
The Sheriff's office shared these videos, alleging de Visa is
the man throwing the punches, but Tabisa was found incompetent
to stand trial and the charges were dropped. The result
of House Built twenty four to ten thirty four, which
had bipartisan support and was signed by Governor Jared Poulis
in twenty twenty four. It was created to encourage mental
health care, but also came with an unintended loophole allowing
(04:19):
those who are found not capable of mental restoration in
a timely manner the ability to walk free.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
It didn't seem as if he received any kind of
penalty for his last action, so it was pretty obvious
that he was going to go right back to the
behaviors he'd been engaging in before. We have all the
state charges we could ever want on this person, but
we have a criminal justice system that's been just been gutted.
Speaker 9 (04:41):
Reims is now calling on state lawmakers to have a
special session to close the loophole.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
They have to do something. They can't just sit on
their hands and expect that this is going to go away.
Speaker 8 (04:51):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
This is a problem.
Speaker 8 (04:53):
In the meantime, Debisa told.
Speaker 10 (04:54):
Us, I'm being a friend and making it look like
a bad person, making me look like this deal gainerous person,
and I even get a chance to even express now.
Speaker 7 (05:06):
So we were only able to get two questions with
Debisa before a man claiming to be his lawyer stepped
in and ended our interview. Governor Polis issued us a
statement saying that he is relieved that Debisa is back
in custody and called him a danger to himself.
Speaker 8 (05:22):
And others.
Speaker 7 (05:23):
His new case will now have to go through the
legal system on its own. The sheriff tells me that
federal officials are looking into whether or not there are
any federal charges they can prosecute, because then that would
help them circumvent the state law in Wald County.
Speaker 8 (05:37):
Dylan Thomas, covering Colorado First and State.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Senator Judy Amoblay sponsored that build that's allowing to be said.
Speaker 8 (05:44):
To avoid prosecution.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
She talked with us today about what lawmakers intended.
Speaker 11 (05:49):
And that can be some like if you have an
intellectual or developmental disability, if you have Alzheimer's, if you
have a traumatic brain disease or traumatic brain injury, those
things are not considered mental illness, and so you cannot
be civilly committed in a Colorado State mental hospital.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Amabla says lawmakers plan to take another look at that lot.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
So that audio obviously kind of outlines this this incident
as well as you possibly could. I'll give a lot
of credit to the sheriff they interviewed on that sound.
That being me now, actually, I think Dylan Thomas did
a great job in kind of laying out, you know,
the crux of this issue. And Judia Mobli comes back
(06:37):
at the end and says, hey, you know, someone who
has an intellectual disability doesn't necessarily, you know, there's not
a place to put that person in a mental health facility.
It's not a mental health problem, it's an intellectual problem.
And that's what you get with mister Ephraim de Visa.
He has an intellectual problem allegedly, although if you listen
(06:59):
to the audio when he was speaking, it's hard to
make the argument that he doesn't understand what's going on.
I can tell you that it's alleged that he's juggling
two or three different girlfriends while he's sitting in my
Weld County jail right now. And as of this morning,
we know that he had a court hearing that at
least he was found still incompetent at this point, but restorable,
(07:21):
which means he could be educated up to the point
where in the right setting, where he could be a
part of his own defense and potentially face these new
charges that he obtained on the University of Northern Colorado's
campus when he brought an assault rifle. I say that
in air quotes because I don't really know what the
definition of that but that's what it was described as
(07:43):
a large caliber rifle that he brought onto the campus.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Sure, yeah, if I may.
Speaker 12 (07:47):
Yeah, how many criminals who commit crimes who you arrest
and they get charged, they get convicted, and they serve
time are of the criminal mastermind caliber intellect in which
they know absolutely what they're doing. They're extremely intelligent individuals.
They don't make many mistakes. They're completely aware of what
(08:08):
they're doing. Isn't by definition, a criminal who commits a
crime in some way not right in the head oftentimes? Yes,
I mean, I'm not going to tell you that everyone
that is in the World County jail, you know, is
of a lower mental capacity. There's some smart people in
there that have made some really bad decisions. Mister Debsa
(08:30):
may not be at the height of the intellectual scale,
but he functions. He's lived in the United States for
much longer than we initially believed. He's operated in society
as a child up through his teenage years, finished high
school at some level, and has this drawing to take
him back to the UNC campus repeatedly. I guess it's
(08:53):
his friend circle, just just real briefly because it was
recently in the news it was a big story. Anybody
that would do what Nick Reiner did to his parents
is by definition insane.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
A sane person wouldn't do that. So does that mean
Nick Reiner, by the.
Speaker 12 (09:07):
Colorado Statute, should not be charged with those crimes, with
those murders.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Well, that's a great question, Ryan, and that's luckily I
don't think California's criminal justice system has a screwed up
as Colorado. So, oh, in California, he may actually get tried,
he may be found competent to stand trial and go
through and receive the appropriate punishment. We mess this up,
when I say we, the state of Colorados messed our
(09:33):
criminal justice system up to a point of almost it
feels like it's beyond repair, but we know it can
be fixed. They passed House Bill twenty four ten thirty
four that made this giant break in the system. And
if nothing else, repeal the bill and go back to
where we were before that.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
And it real quickly forgetting. You know, we gotta go
to break.
Speaker 12 (09:51):
Governor Polos comes out with this statement, Oh, I'm glad
he's in custody.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
He was a danger to the public. Why doesn't he.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Call a special session to do what you just said, then,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
The day that we had to release Debisa, I started
calling every legislator I could get a hold of and
say and telling all of them, Hey, you need to
get in front of this, you need to figure out
how to fix this. Asked for a special session. I
called a bunch of them, and I also made that
public public statement many times over and called called out
Governor Polis. He doesn't he doesn't call me. We don't
(10:20):
have a relationship where we can talk to one another
on my cell phone. But he's got the message. He
knows he has the authority to call a special session.
And you know, look, we're halfway through. We're almost a Christmas.
This happened September eighth, so over two months and we're
doing nothing. Actually three months. I guess we need to
(10:41):
check my math again. What could have been done in
those three months to fix this? And this isn't the
same case as Solomon Gallaghan. When you see from Debisa,
you hear from Debisa, you can tell he's way more
with it than say a Solomon Gallaghan or others that
have been featured. But I say all that to tell
you that we're going to have the victim on of
(11:03):
one of from Debisa's victims in this next segment, and
I'm going to give this guy all the grace in
the world for coming on and telling his story, and
I hope this story will be the thing that moves
the needle and gets Governor Polus to call that special session.
We'll go to break, can we come back, We'll have
Alonso Archiletta on with us to tell his story. You
(11:23):
listen to Dan Kaplas' show here on six point thirty.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
K and now back to the Dan Taplas Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Well can you Sheriff Steve Reams as your guest host,
and we went to break. We were outlining an incident
involving a suspect up in Well County by the name
of Efrem Debisa. We've talked about this individual on the
show many times, and today we're lucky enough to speak
with someone who had a very unfortunate encounter with mister Debisa.
Mister Devisa was actually charged with attempted second degree murder
(11:59):
for attempting to kill this individual. Who were lucky enough
to have on the show and with us now is
Alonso Archiletta. Alonso, how are you doing this afternoon? I'm good. Hey,
I can't thank you enough for sharing this story. I
know that you've been through some serious trauma with this incident,
but I think the words that you can share with
(12:21):
our listeners will be very powerful. So if you would, Alonso,
if you could just outline a little bit of your background.
I know you're a younger guy, but kind of what
you were doing the night that led up to the
encounter with from Debisa.
Speaker 13 (12:37):
Yeah, I'm gonna start by saying, like, if I do
mess up on some speech like that stuff, I'm struggling it, struggling.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
With Yeah, it's my understanding. Yeah, you suffered a serious
brain injury over this, Is that correct?
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 13 (12:55):
Yeah, and I wasn't able to talk like up to
two weeks in the hospital and I finally, after severe
speech therapy, I finally was able to talk and get
some words going. But yeah, so sorry if I've messed
up an you were, No.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
That's totally understandable, totally understandable. So if you would kind
of lead us up to how this encounter happened. And
I know your memory may be a little a little
shaky on some of it, but tell us, tell us
your side of the story. The best you can.
Speaker 13 (13:29):
Yeah, So I actually remember nothing of this, but I
was with my wife and several friends at the bar
and we had just finished with our book club and
at my house and we went out to celebrate or whatever.
And we were at that bar downtown and we were
(13:52):
just having fun and we're getting ready to leave, and
I was told that there was another incident outside at
the bar. But we're like just trying to leave that,
get away from that or whatever and go to our car.
And that's when he from walked up to my wife
and her friends and he seemed to be getting aggressive.
(14:16):
So I walked up to them and was like, what's
going on? Like what what you know? Because he seemed
like he was getting like pretty aggressive. So I was like,
what's going on? And he then turned to me and
I was like, Oh, you guys can't go over there
this way to your car. I was like, well, who
(14:37):
are you to say like we can't walk over here?
You know, like do you work for the city what?
He was like no, and then he just like that's
when he like shoved me. And they said I tripped
and saw like as I was like behind like on
a curve, I fell over and I got back up,
(14:57):
and then that's when he like took off his shirt
and like, so I was at that point, like I
must have been like, oh, this is We're gonna you know, fight,
I guess.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
But then.
Speaker 13 (15:11):
Because there was a lot of people involved, I only
had like three two of my buddies and they were
getting attacked by multiple people. But I don't remember anything.
But I saw the video that Hugh posted, and that's
like the extent of what I know happened. Like he
(15:33):
hit me. I don't even think I was like really
focusing on him or anything, but he just hit me
and knocked me unconscious and I hit I saw that
I hit my head either on the pavement, like on
the floor, on the wall or window film and you
can hear it in the videos. It's kind of crazy,
but but yeah, and then he continues to attack me
(15:57):
after I'm pretty much unconscious, like out of it for sure,
and he keeps hitting me like, you know, for another
like two minutes a minute. Maybe I don't know it. Yeah,
So I mean that's that's what I don't even remember.
Like the next thing I remember is waking up in
(16:18):
the hospital, which was like maybe a day or two later,
like I just woke up and like where am I,
you know, like that kind of thing. So I couldn't
even talk to my wife after that.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Let's stick with the incident for just a little bit.
I want to talk about your recovery here in a
few minutes. But during this incident, you know you were
talking about, there was a large crowd, so was he
had He had a bunch of his friends with him.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Is that correct?
Speaker 13 (16:46):
Yeah? I mean I have no idea who they were,
but I assumed because they were all attacking us, you know,
like my buddy, my other buddy had like five guys
attacking him, and my other buddy had from actually it
was like attacking him too. But then he came after
me and then I don't know, you saw what happened,
(17:08):
Like he just focused on me.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, he definitely.
Speaker 13 (17:11):
Because I was the bigger one.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So yeah, you're you're a pretty good, good sized guy.
And to your credit, I think you were trying to
diffuse the situation as much as you could. And you know,
the crazy part is that they someone was videoing this,
and I assume that video from the way I received it.
My understanding is that it was from or some of
his friends that were filming this whole incident. Is that
(17:35):
is that the way you understand it?
Speaker 13 (17:38):
Yeah, I mean they were definitely it wasn't your It
wasn't your group.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, it wasn't your group that was filming it.
Speaker 13 (17:44):
Correct, Okay, No, we had no idea this was even
going to happen. Like we were just trying to go
home and we were talking about getting some food but
that kind of thing and all this just happened out
of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
So in the video, it clearly shows that you're trying
to negotiate with him, trying to back off. And if
people want to find this video, you can go to
the Well County Sheriff's Office Facebook page and on the
press release that we put out about mister Debisa, you
can find that video. But you start to try to
back away from him, you know, just create distance, and
you make the mistake and I say it that way
of turning your head, and that's when he takes a
(18:18):
swing at you. Yeah, we're going to go to a
break here real quick, Alonso, But if you'll stick with
us through this break, when we get back, I want
to talk about how long your road to recovery has
been and how you're still working through that, So if
you would stay with us through this break, when we
come back, we'll have another segment with you and we'll
hear that story. You're listening to the Dan Capless Show
out here on six point thirty k HOW with Well
County Sheriff Steve Raams.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
You're listening to the Dan Kapliss Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Dan Capless Show here with Well County Sheriff Steve Raams
as your guest host. Today, when we went to break,
we were talking about the incident that happened up in
Greeley in northern Colorado, involving a suspect by the name
of Ephraim Debisa and his victim by the name of
Alonso Archiletta. And Alonso's been so kind to come on
the radio show and tell us his story, and I
just want to recap a little bit. Alonzo and his friends,
(19:17):
his wife and his friends had finished up one of
their book club meetings and they decided to go out
for a few drinks in downtown Greeley. After they had
a few drinks at one of the local bars, they're
leaving to go walk back to their cars and make
their way home, and they encounter this roving group of
individuals in which Dibisa is a part of, and these
folks are just generally looking to cause trouble. Alonso decides, hey,
(19:41):
we need to avoid this and starts kind of ferrying
or moving his friends and family along or trying to
and they encounter, especially Alonso encounters a lot of resistance
and it results with from Debisa trying to assault and
then ultimately doing just that, assaulting Alonso to the point
(20:01):
where he punches him in the side of the head
when he takes a takes a look to the side,
Alonso is knocked out and then mister Debisa jumps on
top of him and just continues to throw punches at
a at an unconscious individual, that the individual being Alonso
on the ground. When we went to break I said,
when we come back, Alonso, we were going to ask
(20:22):
you to pick up the story from there. And I
know you said you don't have much memory of the attack,
but you do remember waking up a couple of days
later in the hospital. Let's pick up from there. You
wake you said you thought it was a couple of
days after the encounter.
Speaker 13 (20:36):
Is that correct, Yeah, it was a couple of days.
And mind you I. I woke up not being able
to speak or say a word, and I was like,
why can I talk right now? You know, like what happened?
What led me to be, you know, in this hospital
look bad and not being able to talk, you know,
(20:58):
because I had no idea why what had happened there
while I was there? And so then I was told
by my wife for the doctors that they said I
tofered a traumatic brain injury and that's why I wasn't
able to talk, and I had a fractured skull and
(21:20):
then multiple brain bleeds because of this, and then yeah,
so I mostly affected my speech was which was scary
because especially to my love Winds and everybody, that I
couldn't I wasn't going to be able to talk again,
you know, like because the neurologists said that I could
take up to like two years to get back, and
(21:41):
who knows, she didn't even know if it would happen,
each will come back, if I would be able to
walk or anything.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
So so so you wake up, you start going through
kind of the recovery period and the healing period. How
long were you in the hospital from.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
This incident.
Speaker 13 (22:00):
A little over two weeks a.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Little over two weeks and then you had to go
into a rehab center. From what I understand, is that correct.
Speaker 13 (22:08):
Yeah. I was there ten days doing speech therapy and
physical therapy and basically learning how to talk again. And
at first, like I wasn't even sure if I could
walk because I was in that bed for almost two weeks,
So I was like, can I even like walk? You know?
So I was a little scared there. But I mean,
(22:32):
I just give a lot of praise to my wife
and how she handled that whole situation because I can't
even imagine what she was going through sure that whole time.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
So well, you sound amazing for a person who was
victimized to the degree you were. I mean, you sound
like you're doing really good. I'm sure you're still working
through some issues. A serious brain injury is not something
that just goes away over overnight or even over you know,
a couple of months. How do you feel like you're
doing compared to before the incident.
Speaker 13 (23:04):
I'm doing a lot better, but like I said, I'm
still struggling with speech, and I still have some memory lapses,
like especially short term memory, and like it's just I
hate to say, but I think this is kind of
what my new norm is, like, you know, like I'm
(23:25):
still working, going to speech therapy and stuff like that.
But I mean, I know, like this, I hate I
hate it because he took this from me, you know,
like that that's what he his actions did. I have
all these issues still going on and it was nothing
(23:47):
that I did. It was all him.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
So right, Well, having said all that, so you know,
when you when you find out that the divisa is
going to basically be released from because he's incompetent to
stand trial, he's not going to be held accountable or
he wasn't going to be held accountable for his actions.
What went through your mind? I mean, this had to
(24:09):
have been a horrific event for you and your family.
Tell me how you were processing that and how you're
continuing to try to deal with that.
Speaker 13 (24:20):
Honestly, I was baffled, Like I didn't understand how that
could be a thing where you can commit or be
charged with the tenth and murder and get released with
no trial, no nothing, just get out of jail free
kind of thing. I was shocked. But yeah, I mean
(24:42):
we've been kind of following the whole story, throughout the
whole situation and we're just hoping for some sort of
justice at some point.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
I don't know if you're aware, but I know you're
aware that he was re arrested and we had an
up date in the case today, that he's still being
deemed incompetent but maybe restorable, which means we're at a
different legal standard now, so he might be able to
stand trial on his most recent charges, and then who
knows what happens with the previous stuff like yours. Does
(25:18):
that give you any comfort whatsoever? Or are you still
I mean, do you have any faith in the criminal
justice system at this point?
Speaker 13 (25:26):
I mean I'm kind of at that tipping point where
I'm like, if this because it hits close to home,
then yeah, yeah, and my my wife we're still struggling
like mental health and all that, and we're still going
through it. So I'm at a point where I'm like,
(25:49):
if this guy gets released again, like like, what does
he have to do, you know, kill somebody, Like he
already got away with the tempted murder, like next to murder,
you know that's what he's gonna do. Like I have
a feeling, but I'm just glad you guys got to
him before anything else hopp into that unc incident. So yeah,
(26:11):
well I just thank God for that, you.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Know, I know, I know this has been hugely impactful
on your life. And I don't use those words lightly.
You know, you say you're you feel like you're kind
of permanently scarred. If if this, if this latest case
is to be tried, and he's found guilty, what kind
of time do you think mister Debisa should do in jail?
(26:35):
And even more importantly, he's he's not a legal citizen
of the United States. Would you rather seem just deported
back to Tanzania where he came from, or do you
want to see him do hard time in prison?
Speaker 13 (26:48):
I think either or I think either one would be
good for me. But I mean, like I think, the
last I heard is he needs to be charged with
a fellamy to get reported, so I mean that would
be a good option too, So I don't know.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, I guess yeah, And I guess where I'm going
with this. If he were to be convicted of this
latest charge, that would I believe that would open the
door for ICE to potentially figure out a way to
export him back to his original country. And I have
to believe that tanz and he has got to be
almost worse than prison. All that being said, I are
(27:32):
you still being contacted by victim's advocates? Are you still
being kept apprized of what's going on? Are you having
to look that up and find out all that information
on your own?
Speaker 13 (27:43):
Yeah? Mostly on our own, we're getting information, but yeah,
I haven't been contacted since.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
So I bring that up not because I think it's
a failing of the necessarily of the District Attorney's office,
but it's a failing of the criminal justice system as
a whole. You are definitely the victim of a crime,
that crime that that person has not been held accountable
for his crime. But we've passed laws in the state.
We have legislators who have passed laws in the state
that are offering your attacker, in my opinion, your attacker
(28:16):
more justice, more freedom than they're offering you, the victim
of a crime. And that's just that's not the way
the system should be. And I am so sorry that
it failed you.
Speaker 13 (28:26):
Yeah, I mean I've definitely gone through that. Like I
was out of work for four months because of this,
and I own my own business, so that's I get
no compensation for that or anything, so I had to.
Really I'm still struggling, like I'm still not back to
work one hundred percent of the time, so I'm still
(28:48):
struggling with like financially and stuff like that. But I mean, yeah,
it's bad, Like I really think he got the better
deal out of it for sure, because he has been
charged with anything. He hasn't even I mean just on
my case alone, he was released and to not be
(29:08):
charged again, just to roam free, be out and about,
you know, like I feel like I wasn't given any
justice all for my what he did to.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Me so well on, So I can't thank you enough
for coming on the show. I'm glad we had a
chance to connect, and I'm gonna stay in touch with
you and keep you apprized of what happens in this
this newest case because I want to make sure that
if justice can be had in any way, that that
that definitely occurs. Again, thank you for sharing your story
with us, and if if it helps motivate some of
(29:39):
these legislators to get off their butts and fix what
they've broken, then your story was definitely worth telling. Again,
thank you for coming on the show. We appreciate it.
Thank you with that man, what a story. We'll go
to break, can we come back. We'll catch up with
these texts which have definitely been flowing in, and we'll
(30:00):
finish out the hour discussing the intricacies of this case.
You're listen to the Dan Capla Show here on six
pin thirty k how with Well Kenny Sheriff Steve Raams.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
And now back to the Dan Taplas Show podcast s.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
And if you didn't get a chance to hear the
first part of this hour, I'd highly encourage you to
go back and listen to the story from Alonso Archileatta.
He's the victim of from Debisa's attack, which we've highlighted
not only on this show, but it's been highlighted on
on many news stations, not only locally but nationally because
(30:38):
from Debisa was dismissed from the Weld County jail, dismissed
from the court system after he was found incompetent to
stand trial and basically given a pass on an attempted
second degree murder charge. And the person whose story never
gets to be told in general, seems like it's the victim,
and this time I think I think Alonso actually got
(30:59):
a chance to just how damaging that was to him.
Speaker 12 (31:02):
Sheriff again, just asking the questions I think the people
out there have from what they heard maybe in the
opening of this program with the CBS Colorado four package.
So after the be is a totally incompetent, he's bat
blank crazy, doesn't know what's going on, and yet in
the jail cell in this interview with CBS four, he
contends there's a political conspiracy against him, right right, So
(31:24):
if he couldn't formulate thoughts understand charges against him, how
could he come up with that?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
That's a great question, and you know he was actually
engaging in that in that interview basically through a tablet.
So he knows how to use cellular devices, he knows
how to use electronics. He functioned in a general population
housing unit for many months when he was in the
jail on this original charge. Since coming back into the facility,
(31:49):
we have him in a much different custody situation because
he has proven to be extremely dangerous and very He's he's.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Just very.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
He wants to fight everything. So he's a problem. He's
a problem inmate, and he's continuing to show exactly what
kind of person he is, and that's a person who
should be in custom Now.
Speaker 12 (32:10):
I want to bring up what Senator Mark Basley told
me earlier today with regard to this bill, and it
was just absolute garbage. But it was passed unanimously Senate.
Every Republican in the Senate voted for it, including Baisley,
including Kirkmeyer. That answers a Texter's previous question. But his
understanding at first, Blush was that any class one, class two,
(32:32):
class three felony charge would be exempt from this contention
of not being competent to stand trial. Was that serious
of a crime, And yet here we go second degree murder.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
It didn't work that way. Yeah, no, why not? Well, so,
I don't know other than they got the wording wrong.
And you know, George Brockler kind of broke this down
in an earlier interview I think he did with Dan
where he says, hey, they changed the legal standard when
they rewrote this bill. And there it's even more complicating
because with Dibisa, with e from Devisa, it's not that
(33:05):
he's mentally ill, it's that he's mentally incompetent. Those are
two different standards. So if someone's mentally incompetent, they can't
there's no facility that you can take them to. It
just means that they're not quite capable of understanding how
logic works in a particular area. It doesn't mean that
they're crazy. It doesn't mean that they have an underlying
mental health issue that you can treat somewhere. So the
(33:27):
way that you restore competency for someone in this type
of situation is basically to educate them about what the
criminal justice system does or doesn't do. It's such a
weird approach. But again, this bill, House Bill twenty four
to ten thirty four opened up this doorway, if you will,
and that doorway basically leads to the outside of a
jail for an inmate, or in the state of Colorado,
(33:51):
many inmates who shouldn't have that option open form.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
It's a poorly written law. I don't believe.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
That some of the people that sign up onto this
understood exactly what it could do. And I think you
heard that in the interviews you did Ryan with Senator
kirk Meyer and Senator Baisley. I just I don't think
they understood the full gravity of what they were voting
on and to you know, Representative Bottom saying he was
against this thing from the whole start. I hope that
(34:20):
was based on the logic that hey, this thing is
going to be really bad, and he wasn't just unvoting
against it because it's a Democrat bill. Regardless, it needs
to be fixed. And that hasn't occurred. A special session
hasn't been called. It still could be, and it just hasn't.
It just hasn't happened. A couple of texts coming in.
This one's from one of our loyal listeners, Alexa chaff
(34:41):
frames that law is just one of hundreds of ways
Polus has ruined Colorado, and that's the truth. He signed
that thing into law. Another one, kirk Meyer was one
of the bipartisan votes for this bill. You're covering question mark. Yes,
that's true. Additionally, Paulus has been sucked in President Trump's
vortex and is being hurt by his famous his famous rhetoric, rhetoric.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
He's flailing around.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Yeah, I don't Police is definitely juggling how to deal
with the Tina Peters situation and what he should and
shouldn't do. I don't know what police is. I don't
know what he's gearing for in his next his next life,
if you will. But I don't think he's leaving politics.
Someone asked, was this a gang issue involving Debisa and
(35:24):
was the victim part of another gang?
Speaker 2 (35:26):
No, that is not the case.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Uh, the victim in this incident truly innocent person. Anyways,
we'll get we'll get back to talking to politics on
a grander scale when we come back. We're gonna have
Dick Wadhams on to talk about where are we at
in the state of Colorado for a potential governor on
the Republican side. He listened to the six point thirty
K how Dan Kaplisher
This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the Dankplas Show. You got well.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
County Sheriff Steve Reims setting in today. I think yesterday
was Heidi and the day before that was George Brockler,
and tomorrow I believe is Christy Burton Brown if I'm
not mistaken.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
So Binga, you nailed all.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Look at that now, all from memory.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Impressive for me because sometimes I can't remember which way
to get out of the building. So having said all that,
I've been listening to you, Ryan and a lot of
your interviews over the last few days, and a common
theme that's been coming up is House Bill twenty four
Tosh ten thirty four, the competency bill here in Colorado,
and how some of the candidates for governor voted for
(00:53):
or against that particular bill. As you and the listeners
are well aware, I had a very personal interaction with
this bill because it forced me to release an inmate
from my jail by the name of Ephraim Debisa, and
that individual had been charged with attempted second degree murder
but was found incompetent to stand trial, and because of
(01:14):
House Bill twenty four to ten thirty four, with that
incompetency ruling, despite several maneuvers by the district attorney and
the county attorney, two different people, you know, they did
everything that they could under the confines of this new
law and just simply could not figure out a way
to get mister Debisa committed to a mental health facility
(01:36):
against his own will. So he goes out into the public,
and I felt like it was appropriate for me to
warn the public just so they would know exactly what
this I'm going to call him a monster was that
was going to be coming back into the community, and
basically everybody needed to have their head on a swivel.
So fast forward a little while, and I've been fortunate
(01:58):
enough to contact the victim of one of his last crimes,
and that's the victim of that attempted second degree murder.
And we're going to have that individual on in about
the four fifteen four twenty timeframe. But just to set
that up, there was a story done by CBS. Dylan
Thomas from CBS about this whole incident, and I'd just
like to go to that audio if we could ran a.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
New criminal case against a man police say keeps committing
violent crimes but can't be punished.
Speaker 6 (02:24):
Well, he's already avoided attempted murder charges because he was
deemed incompetent to stand trial. Now from Davisha is accused
of bringing a gun onto the University of Northern Colorado campus,
but he claims he has done nothing wrong. Dylan Thomas
is you're a reporter in Northern Colorado. He talked with
Davisha at the Well County jail today.
Speaker 7 (02:45):
In an exclusive interview with CBS News Colorado, Efriam de
Visa tells us he is being targeted and used as
a political example. He is back behind bars just fifteen
days after being released against the wishes of prosecutters.
Speaker 8 (03:00):
And the sheriff. Hello, Sir.
Speaker 9 (03:03):
Talking with us virtually on a blurry camera from his
jail pod, a framed Debisa told us he is an innocent.
Speaker 10 (03:10):
Man being targetated by the Sheriff's department, the police department.
Speaker 9 (03:17):
Debisa is back in custody, accused of bringing a gun
on the University of Northern Colorado campus. He'd been free
just over two weeks since a legal loophole mandated he'd
be released from jail after an arrest for attempted murder.
Weld County Sheriff Steve Reames wasn't surprised to hear about
the new arrest.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I guess the only shock is that no one got hurt.
I really expected that he would victimize another person. His
criminal history had shown that he pretty much has no
regard for the law. He judge a person by their
past behavior, and his past behavior has been one that
he has no remorse for what he did.
Speaker 9 (03:51):
That past behavior includes allegedly knocking men out and continuing
to hit.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
Them while they were down.
Speaker 9 (03:57):
The Sheriff's office shared these videos, alleging de Visa is
the man throwing the punches, but Tabisa was found incompetent
to stand trial and the charges were dropped. The result
of House Built twenty four to ten thirty four, which
had bipartisan support and was signed by Governor Jared Poulis
in twenty twenty four. It was created to encourage mental
health care, but also came with an unintended loophole allowing
(04:19):
those who are found not capable of mental restoration in
a timely manner the ability to walk free.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
It didn't seem as if he received any kind of
penalty for his last action, so it was pretty obvious
that he was going to go right back to the
behaviors he'd been engaging in before. We have all the
state charges we could ever want on this person, but
we have a criminal justice system that's been just been gutted.
Speaker 9 (04:41):
Reims is now calling on state lawmakers to have a
special session to close the loophole.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
They have to do something. They can't just sit on
their hands and expect that this is going to go away.
Speaker 8 (04:51):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
This is a problem.
Speaker 8 (04:53):
In the meantime, Debisa told.
Speaker 10 (04:54):
Us, I'm being a friend and making it look like
a bad person, making me look like this deal gainerous person,
and I even get a chance to even express now.
Speaker 7 (05:06):
So we were only able to get two questions with
Debisa before a man claiming to be his lawyer stepped
in and ended our interview. Governor Polis issued us a
statement saying that he is relieved that Debisa is back
in custody and called him a danger to himself.
Speaker 8 (05:22):
And others.
Speaker 7 (05:23):
His new case will now have to go through the
legal system on its own. The sheriff tells me that
federal officials are looking into whether or not there are
any federal charges they can prosecute, because then that would
help them circumvent the state law in Wald County.
Speaker 8 (05:37):
Dylan Thomas, covering Colorado First and State.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Senator Judy Amoblay sponsored that build that's allowing to be said.
Speaker 8 (05:44):
To avoid prosecution.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
She talked with us today about what lawmakers intended.
Speaker 11 (05:49):
And that can be some like if you have an
intellectual or developmental disability, if you have Alzheimer's, if you
have a traumatic brain disease or traumatic brain injury, those
things are not considered mental illness, and so you cannot
be civilly committed in a Colorado State mental hospital.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Amabla says lawmakers plan to take another look at that lot.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
So that audio obviously kind of outlines this this incident
as well as you possibly could. I'll give a lot
of credit to the sheriff they interviewed on that sound.
That being me now, actually, I think Dylan Thomas did
a great job in kind of laying out, you know,
the crux of this issue. And Judia Mobli comes back
(06:37):
at the end and says, hey, you know, someone who
has an intellectual disability doesn't necessarily, you know, there's not
a place to put that person in a mental health facility.
It's not a mental health problem, it's an intellectual problem.
And that's what you get with mister Ephraim de Visa.
He has an intellectual problem allegedly, although if you listen
(06:59):
to the audio when he was speaking, it's hard to
make the argument that he doesn't understand what's going on.
I can tell you that it's alleged that he's juggling
two or three different girlfriends while he's sitting in my
Weld County jail right now. And as of this morning,
we know that he had a court hearing that at
least he was found still incompetent at this point, but restorable,
(07:21):
which means he could be educated up to the point
where in the right setting, where he could be a
part of his own defense and potentially face these new
charges that he obtained on the University of Northern Colorado's
campus when he brought an assault rifle. I say that
in air quotes because I don't really know what the
definition of that but that's what it was described as
(07:43):
a large caliber rifle that he brought onto the campus.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Sure, yeah, if I may.
Speaker 12 (07:47):
Yeah, how many criminals who commit crimes who you arrest
and they get charged, they get convicted, and they serve
time are of the criminal mastermind caliber intellect in which
they know absolutely what they're doing. They're extremely intelligent individuals.
They don't make many mistakes. They're completely aware of what
(08:08):
they're doing. Isn't by definition, a criminal who commits a
crime in some way not right in the head oftentimes? Yes,
I mean, I'm not going to tell you that everyone
that is in the World County jail, you know, is
of a lower mental capacity. There's some smart people in
there that have made some really bad decisions. Mister Debsa
(08:30):
may not be at the height of the intellectual scale,
but he functions. He's lived in the United States for
much longer than we initially believed. He's operated in society
as a child up through his teenage years, finished high
school at some level, and has this drawing to take
him back to the UNC campus repeatedly. I guess it's
(08:53):
his friend circle, just just real briefly because it was
recently in the news it was a big story. Anybody
that would do what Nick Reiner did to his parents
is by definition insane.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
A sane person wouldn't do that. So does that mean
Nick Reiner, by the.
Speaker 12 (09:07):
Colorado Statute, should not be charged with those crimes, with
those murders.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Well, that's a great question, Ryan, and that's luckily I
don't think California's criminal justice system has a screwed up
as Colorado. So, oh, in California, he may actually get tried,
he may be found competent to stand trial and go
through and receive the appropriate punishment. We mess this up,
when I say we, the state of Colorados messed our
(09:33):
criminal justice system up to a point of almost it
feels like it's beyond repair, but we know it can
be fixed. They passed House Bill twenty four ten thirty
four that made this giant break in the system. And
if nothing else, repeal the bill and go back to
where we were before that.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
And it real quickly forgetting. You know, we gotta go
to break.
Speaker 12 (09:51):
Governor Polos comes out with this statement, Oh, I'm glad
he's in custody.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
He was a danger to the public. Why doesn't he.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Call a special session to do what you just said, then,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
The day that we had to release Debisa, I started
calling every legislator I could get a hold of and
say and telling all of them, Hey, you need to
get in front of this, you need to figure out
how to fix this. Asked for a special session. I
called a bunch of them, and I also made that
public public statement many times over and called called out
Governor Polis. He doesn't he doesn't call me. We don't
(10:20):
have a relationship where we can talk to one another
on my cell phone. But he's got the message. He
knows he has the authority to call a special session.
And you know, look, we're halfway through. We're almost a Christmas.
This happened September eighth, so over two months and we're
doing nothing. Actually three months. I guess we need to
(10:41):
check my math again. What could have been done in
those three months to fix this? And this isn't the
same case as Solomon Gallaghan. When you see from Debisa,
you hear from Debisa, you can tell he's way more
with it than say a Solomon Gallaghan or others that
have been featured. But I say all that to tell
you that we're going to have the victim on of
(11:03):
one of from Debisa's victims in this next segment, and
I'm going to give this guy all the grace in
the world for coming on and telling his story, and
I hope this story will be the thing that moves
the needle and gets Governor Polus to call that special session.
We'll go to break, can we come back, We'll have
Alonso Archiletta on with us to tell his story. You
(11:23):
listen to Dan Kaplas' show here on six point thirty.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
K and now back to the Dan Taplas Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Well can you Sheriff Steve Reams as your guest host,
and we went to break. We were outlining an incident
involving a suspect up in Well County by the name
of Efrem Debisa. We've talked about this individual on the
show many times, and today we're lucky enough to speak
with someone who had a very unfortunate encounter with mister Debisa.
Mister Devisa was actually charged with attempted second degree murder
(11:59):
for attempting to kill this individual. Who were lucky enough
to have on the show and with us now is
Alonso Archiletta. Alonso, how are you doing this afternoon? I'm good. Hey,
I can't thank you enough for sharing this story. I
know that you've been through some serious trauma with this incident,
but I think the words that you can share with
(12:21):
our listeners will be very powerful. So if you would, Alonso,
if you could just outline a little bit of your background.
I know you're a younger guy, but kind of what
you were doing the night that led up to the
encounter with from Debisa.
Speaker 13 (12:37):
Yeah, I'm gonna start by saying, like, if I do
mess up on some speech like that stuff, I'm struggling it, struggling.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
With Yeah, it's my understanding. Yeah, you suffered a serious
brain injury over this, Is that correct?
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 13 (12:55):
Yeah, and I wasn't able to talk like up to
two weeks in the hospital and I finally, after severe
speech therapy, I finally was able to talk and get
some words going. But yeah, so sorry if I've messed
up an you were, No.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
That's totally understandable, totally understandable. So if you would kind
of lead us up to how this encounter happened. And
I know your memory may be a little a little
shaky on some of it, but tell us, tell us
your side of the story. The best you can.
Speaker 13 (13:29):
Yeah, So I actually remember nothing of this, but I
was with my wife and several friends at the bar
and we had just finished with our book club and
at my house and we went out to celebrate or whatever.
And we were at that bar downtown and we were
(13:52):
just having fun and we're getting ready to leave, and
I was told that there was another incident outside at
the bar. But we're like just trying to leave that,
get away from that or whatever and go to our car.
And that's when he from walked up to my wife
and her friends and he seemed to be getting aggressive.
(14:16):
So I walked up to them and was like, what's
going on? Like what what you know? Because he seemed
like he was getting like pretty aggressive. So I was like,
what's going on? And he then turned to me and
I was like, Oh, you guys can't go over there
this way to your car. I was like, well, who
(14:37):
are you to say like we can't walk over here?
You know, like do you work for the city what?
He was like no, and then he just like that's
when he like shoved me. And they said I tripped
and saw like as I was like behind like on
a curve, I fell over and I got back up,
(14:57):
and then that's when he like took off his shirt
and like, so I was at that point, like I
must have been like, oh, this is We're gonna you know, fight,
I guess.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
But then.
Speaker 13 (15:11):
Because there was a lot of people involved, I only
had like three two of my buddies and they were
getting attacked by multiple people. But I don't remember anything.
But I saw the video that Hugh posted, and that's
like the extent of what I know happened. Like he
(15:33):
hit me. I don't even think I was like really
focusing on him or anything, but he just hit me
and knocked me unconscious and I hit I saw that
I hit my head either on the pavement, like on
the floor, on the wall or window film and you
can hear it in the videos. It's kind of crazy,
but but yeah, and then he continues to attack me
(15:57):
after I'm pretty much unconscious, like out of it for sure,
and he keeps hitting me like, you know, for another
like two minutes a minute. Maybe I don't know it. Yeah,
So I mean that's that's what I don't even remember.
Like the next thing I remember is waking up in
(16:18):
the hospital, which was like maybe a day or two later,
like I just woke up and like where am I,
you know, like that kind of thing. So I couldn't
even talk to my wife after that.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Let's stick with the incident for just a little bit.
I want to talk about your recovery here in a
few minutes. But during this incident, you know you were
talking about, there was a large crowd, so was he
had He had a bunch of his friends with him.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Is that correct?
Speaker 13 (16:46):
Yeah? I mean I have no idea who they were,
but I assumed because they were all attacking us, you know,
like my buddy, my other buddy had like five guys
attacking him, and my other buddy had from actually it
was like attacking him too. But then he came after
me and then I don't know, you saw what happened,
(17:08):
Like he just focused on me.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, he definitely.
Speaker 13 (17:11):
Because I was the bigger one.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So yeah, you're you're a pretty good, good sized guy.
And to your credit, I think you were trying to
diffuse the situation as much as you could. And you know,
the crazy part is that they someone was videoing this,
and I assume that video from the way I received it.
My understanding is that it was from or some of
his friends that were filming this whole incident. Is that
(17:35):
is that the way you understand it?
Speaker 13 (17:38):
Yeah, I mean they were definitely it wasn't your It
wasn't your group.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, it wasn't your group that was filming it.
Speaker 13 (17:44):
Correct, Okay, No, we had no idea this was even
going to happen. Like we were just trying to go
home and we were talking about getting some food but
that kind of thing and all this just happened out
of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
So in the video, it clearly shows that you're trying
to negotiate with him, trying to back off. And if
people want to find this video, you can go to
the Well County Sheriff's Office Facebook page and on the
press release that we put out about mister Debisa, you
can find that video. But you start to try to
back away from him, you know, just create distance, and
you make the mistake and I say it that way
of turning your head, and that's when he takes a
(18:18):
swing at you. Yeah, we're going to go to a
break here real quick, Alonso, But if you'll stick with
us through this break, when we get back, I want
to talk about how long your road to recovery has
been and how you're still working through that, So if
you would stay with us through this break, when we
come back, we'll have another segment with you and we'll
hear that story. You're listening to the Dan Capless Show
out here on six point thirty k HOW with Well
County Sheriff Steve Raams.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
You're listening to the Dan Kapliss Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Dan Capless Show here with Well County Sheriff Steve Raams
as your guest host. Today, when we went to break,
we were talking about the incident that happened up in
Greeley in northern Colorado, involving a suspect by the name
of Ephraim Debisa and his victim by the name of
Alonso Archiletta. And Alonso's been so kind to come on
the radio show and tell us his story, and I
just want to recap a little bit. Alonzo and his friends,
(19:17):
his wife and his friends had finished up one of
their book club meetings and they decided to go out
for a few drinks in downtown Greeley. After they had
a few drinks at one of the local bars, they're
leaving to go walk back to their cars and make
their way home, and they encounter this roving group of
individuals in which Dibisa is a part of, and these
folks are just generally looking to cause trouble. Alonso decides, hey,
(19:41):
we need to avoid this and starts kind of ferrying
or moving his friends and family along or trying to
and they encounter, especially Alonso encounters a lot of resistance
and it results with from Debisa trying to assault and
then ultimately doing just that, assaulting Alonso to the point
(20:01):
where he punches him in the side of the head
when he takes a takes a look to the side,
Alonso is knocked out and then mister Debisa jumps on
top of him and just continues to throw punches at
a at an unconscious individual, that the individual being Alonso
on the ground. When we went to break I said,
when we come back, Alonso, we were going to ask
(20:22):
you to pick up the story from there. And I
know you said you don't have much memory of the attack,
but you do remember waking up a couple of days
later in the hospital. Let's pick up from there. You
wake you said you thought it was a couple of
days after the encounter.
Speaker 13 (20:36):
Is that correct, Yeah, it was a couple of days.
And mind you I. I woke up not being able
to speak or say a word, and I was like,
why can I talk right now? You know, like what happened?
What led me to be, you know, in this hospital
look bad and not being able to talk, you know,
(20:58):
because I had no idea why what had happened there
while I was there? And so then I was told
by my wife for the doctors that they said I
tofered a traumatic brain injury and that's why I wasn't
able to talk, and I had a fractured skull and
(21:20):
then multiple brain bleeds because of this, and then yeah,
so I mostly affected my speech was which was scary
because especially to my love Winds and everybody, that I
couldn't I wasn't going to be able to talk again,
you know, like because the neurologists said that I could
take up to like two years to get back, and
(21:41):
who knows, she didn't even know if it would happen,
each will come back, if I would be able to
walk or anything.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
So so so you wake up, you start going through
kind of the recovery period and the healing period. How
long were you in the hospital from.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
This incident.
Speaker 13 (22:00):
A little over two weeks a.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Little over two weeks and then you had to go
into a rehab center. From what I understand, is that correct.
Speaker 13 (22:08):
Yeah. I was there ten days doing speech therapy and
physical therapy and basically learning how to talk again. And
at first, like I wasn't even sure if I could
walk because I was in that bed for almost two weeks,
So I was like, can I even like walk? You know?
So I was a little scared there. But I mean,
(22:32):
I just give a lot of praise to my wife
and how she handled that whole situation because I can't
even imagine what she was going through sure that whole time.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
So well, you sound amazing for a person who was
victimized to the degree you were. I mean, you sound
like you're doing really good. I'm sure you're still working
through some issues. A serious brain injury is not something
that just goes away over overnight or even over you know,
a couple of months. How do you feel like you're
doing compared to before the incident.
Speaker 13 (23:04):
I'm doing a lot better, but like I said, I'm
still struggling with speech, and I still have some memory lapses,
like especially short term memory, and like it's just I
hate to say, but I think this is kind of
what my new norm is, like, you know, like I'm
(23:25):
still working, going to speech therapy and stuff like that.
But I mean, I know, like this, I hate I
hate it because he took this from me, you know,
like that that's what he his actions did. I have
all these issues still going on and it was nothing
(23:47):
that I did. It was all him.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
So right, Well, having said all that, so you know,
when you when you find out that the divisa is
going to basically be released from because he's incompetent to
stand trial, he's not going to be held accountable or
he wasn't going to be held accountable for his actions.
What went through your mind? I mean, this had to
(24:09):
have been a horrific event for you and your family.
Tell me how you were processing that and how you're
continuing to try to deal with that.
Speaker 13 (24:20):
Honestly, I was baffled, Like I didn't understand how that
could be a thing where you can commit or be
charged with the tenth and murder and get released with
no trial, no nothing, just get out of jail free
kind of thing. I was shocked. But yeah, I mean
(24:42):
we've been kind of following the whole story, throughout the
whole situation and we're just hoping for some sort of
justice at some point.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
I don't know if you're aware, but I know you're
aware that he was re arrested and we had an
up date in the case today, that he's still being
deemed incompetent but maybe restorable, which means we're at a
different legal standard now, so he might be able to
stand trial on his most recent charges, and then who
knows what happens with the previous stuff like yours. Does
(25:18):
that give you any comfort whatsoever? Or are you still
I mean, do you have any faith in the criminal
justice system at this point?
Speaker 13 (25:26):
I mean I'm kind of at that tipping point where
I'm like, if this because it hits close to home,
then yeah, yeah, and my my wife we're still struggling
like mental health and all that, and we're still going
through it. So I'm at a point where I'm like,
(25:49):
if this guy gets released again, like like, what does
he have to do, you know, kill somebody, Like he
already got away with the tempted murder, like next to murder,
you know that's what he's gonna do. Like I have
a feeling, but I'm just glad you guys got to
him before anything else hopp into that unc incident. So yeah,
(26:11):
well I just thank God for that, you.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Know, I know, I know this has been hugely impactful
on your life. And I don't use those words lightly.
You know, you say you're you feel like you're kind
of permanently scarred. If if this, if this latest case
is to be tried, and he's found guilty, what kind
of time do you think mister Debisa should do in jail?
(26:35):
And even more importantly, he's he's not a legal citizen
of the United States. Would you rather seem just deported
back to Tanzania where he came from, or do you
want to see him do hard time in prison?
Speaker 13 (26:48):
I think either or I think either one would be
good for me. But I mean, like I think, the
last I heard is he needs to be charged with
a fellamy to get reported, so I mean that would
be a good option too, So I don't know.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, I guess yeah, And I guess where I'm going
with this. If he were to be convicted of this
latest charge, that would I believe that would open the
door for ICE to potentially figure out a way to
export him back to his original country. And I have
to believe that tanz and he has got to be
almost worse than prison. All that being said, I are
(27:32):
you still being contacted by victim's advocates? Are you still
being kept apprized of what's going on? Are you having
to look that up and find out all that information
on your own?
Speaker 13 (27:43):
Yeah? Mostly on our own, we're getting information, but yeah,
I haven't been contacted since.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
So I bring that up not because I think it's
a failing of the necessarily of the District Attorney's office,
but it's a failing of the criminal justice system as
a whole. You are definitely the victim of a crime,
that crime that that person has not been held accountable
for his crime. But we've passed laws in the state.
We have legislators who have passed laws in the state
that are offering your attacker, in my opinion, your attacker
(28:16):
more justice, more freedom than they're offering you, the victim
of a crime. And that's just that's not the way
the system should be. And I am so sorry that
it failed you.
Speaker 13 (28:26):
Yeah, I mean I've definitely gone through that. Like I
was out of work for four months because of this,
and I own my own business, so that's I get
no compensation for that or anything, so I had to.
Really I'm still struggling, like I'm still not back to
work one hundred percent of the time, so I'm still
(28:48):
struggling with like financially and stuff like that. But I mean, yeah,
it's bad, Like I really think he got the better
deal out of it for sure, because he has been
charged with anything. He hasn't even I mean just on
my case alone, he was released and to not be
(29:08):
charged again, just to roam free, be out and about,
you know, like I feel like I wasn't given any
justice all for my what he did to.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Me so well on, So I can't thank you enough
for coming on the show. I'm glad we had a
chance to connect, and I'm gonna stay in touch with
you and keep you apprized of what happens in this
this newest case because I want to make sure that
if justice can be had in any way, that that
that definitely occurs. Again, thank you for sharing your story
with us, and if if it helps motivate some of
(29:39):
these legislators to get off their butts and fix what
they've broken, then your story was definitely worth telling. Again,
thank you for coming on the show. We appreciate it.
Thank you with that man, what a story. We'll go
to break, can we come back. We'll catch up with
these texts which have definitely been flowing in, and we'll
(30:00):
finish out the hour discussing the intricacies of this case.
You're listen to the Dan Capla Show here on six
pin thirty k how with Well Kenny Sheriff Steve Raams.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
And now back to the Dan Taplas Show podcast s.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
And if you didn't get a chance to hear the
first part of this hour, I'd highly encourage you to
go back and listen to the story from Alonso Archileatta.
He's the victim of from Debisa's attack, which we've highlighted
not only on this show, but it's been highlighted on
on many news stations, not only locally but nationally because
(30:38):
from Debisa was dismissed from the Weld County jail, dismissed
from the court system after he was found incompetent to
stand trial and basically given a pass on an attempted
second degree murder charge. And the person whose story never
gets to be told in general, seems like it's the victim,
and this time I think I think Alonso actually got
(30:59):
a chance to just how damaging that was to him.
Speaker 12 (31:02):
Sheriff again, just asking the questions I think the people
out there have from what they heard maybe in the
opening of this program with the CBS Colorado four package.
So after the be is a totally incompetent, he's bat
blank crazy, doesn't know what's going on, and yet in
the jail cell in this interview with CBS four, he
contends there's a political conspiracy against him, right right, So
(31:24):
if he couldn't formulate thoughts understand charges against him, how
could he come up with that?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
That's a great question, and you know he was actually
engaging in that in that interview basically through a tablet.
So he knows how to use cellular devices, he knows
how to use electronics. He functioned in a general population
housing unit for many months when he was in the
jail on this original charge. Since coming back into the facility,
(31:49):
we have him in a much different custody situation because
he has proven to be extremely dangerous and very He's he's.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Just very.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
He wants to fight everything. So he's a problem. He's
a problem inmate, and he's continuing to show exactly what
kind of person he is, and that's a person who
should be in custom Now.
Speaker 12 (32:10):
I want to bring up what Senator Mark Basley told
me earlier today with regard to this bill, and it
was just absolute garbage. But it was passed unanimously Senate.
Every Republican in the Senate voted for it, including Baisley,
including Kirkmeyer. That answers a Texter's previous question. But his
understanding at first, Blush was that any class one, class two,
(32:32):
class three felony charge would be exempt from this contention
of not being competent to stand trial. Was that serious
of a crime, And yet here we go second degree murder.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
It didn't work that way. Yeah, no, why not? Well, so,
I don't know other than they got the wording wrong.
And you know, George Brockler kind of broke this down
in an earlier interview I think he did with Dan
where he says, hey, they changed the legal standard when
they rewrote this bill. And there it's even more complicating
because with Dibisa, with e from Devisa, it's not that
(33:05):
he's mentally ill, it's that he's mentally incompetent. Those are
two different standards. So if someone's mentally incompetent, they can't
there's no facility that you can take them to. It
just means that they're not quite capable of understanding how
logic works in a particular area. It doesn't mean that
they're crazy. It doesn't mean that they have an underlying
mental health issue that you can treat somewhere. So the
(33:27):
way that you restore competency for someone in this type
of situation is basically to educate them about what the
criminal justice system does or doesn't do. It's such a
weird approach. But again, this bill, House Bill twenty four
to ten thirty four opened up this doorway, if you will,
and that doorway basically leads to the outside of a
jail for an inmate, or in the state of Colorado,
(33:51):
many inmates who shouldn't have that option open form.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
It's a poorly written law. I don't believe.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
That some of the people that sign up onto this
understood exactly what it could do. And I think you
heard that in the interviews you did Ryan with Senator
kirk Meyer and Senator Baisley. I just I don't think
they understood the full gravity of what they were voting
on and to you know, Representative Bottom saying he was
against this thing from the whole start. I hope that
(34:20):
was based on the logic that hey, this thing is
going to be really bad, and he wasn't just unvoting
against it because it's a Democrat bill. Regardless, it needs
to be fixed. And that hasn't occurred. A special session
hasn't been called. It still could be, and it just hasn't.
It just hasn't happened. A couple of texts coming in.
This one's from one of our loyal listeners, Alexa chaff
(34:41):
frames that law is just one of hundreds of ways
Polus has ruined Colorado, and that's the truth. He signed
that thing into law. Another one, kirk Meyer was one
of the bipartisan votes for this bill. You're covering question mark. Yes,
that's true. Additionally, Paulus has been sucked in President Trump's
vortex and is being hurt by his famous his famous rhetoric, rhetoric.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
He's flailing around.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Yeah, I don't Police is definitely juggling how to deal
with the Tina Peters situation and what he should and
shouldn't do. I don't know what police is. I don't
know what he's gearing for in his next his next life,
if you will. But I don't think he's leaving politics.
Someone asked, was this a gang issue involving Debisa and
(35:24):
was the victim part of another gang?
Speaker 2 (35:26):
No, that is not the case.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Uh, the victim in this incident truly innocent person. Anyways,
we'll get we'll get back to talking to politics on
a grander scale when we come back. We're gonna have
Dick Wadhams on to talk about where are we at
in the state of Colorado for a potential governor on
the Republican side. He listened to the six point thirty
K how Dan Kaplisher
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