The household of a Jefferson County man who was murdered nearly 5 years in the past is alarmed {that a} lady who helped eliminate the sufferer’s dismembered physique is being thought of for parole simply months after she was sentenced to 6 years in jail.
Lila Atencio, 22, is scheduled to go earlier than the Colorado State Board of Parole on Wednesday, 5 years nearly to the day after Joseph Brinson was shot to dying at his rural Jefferson County house on Jan. 16, 2019.
Atencio, who was 17 on the time, was not current throughout the slaying however helped two males load Brinson’s dismembered physique into trash luggage after which dump the stays in a distant a part of jap Arapahoe County.
“Justice has not been served for Joe in terms of Lila,” mentioned Amy Frost, Brinson’s aunt. “The opposite two perpetrators, they’re in jail. One is spending life in jail; one has 46 years in jail. That’s all good. That’s not what retains me up at evening. What retains me up at evening is Lila. And the actual fact nobody is holding her liable for what she has completed and she will proceed to interrupt the regulation.”
The killing
Within the winter of 2018, tensions have been rising between Joseph Brinson, 28, and his roommate, William Irvine, then 26. The pair rented a single household house on Mica Mine Gulch Highway, within the foothills southwest of Littleton.
A simmering argument between the 2 grew till Irvine started to make feedback to his mates — Atencio and Blake Quinlan, who was 18 on the time — about killing his roommate. The youngsters ceaselessly frolicked at Brinson and Irvine’s house.
Atencio would later inform police she initially thought Irvine’s feedback have been jokes. He spoke about poisoning Brinson, or capturing him along with his personal gun and staging the scene to appear to be a suicide, in line with an affidavit filed within the case. Then, within the weeks earlier than the killing, Irvine, Quinlan and Atencio went to House Depot and acquired sheets of plastic, latex gloves and a hand noticed.
Atencio and Quinlan lined the house’s basement in plastic from ground to ceiling a pair days earlier than the killing. They later informed police they have been going to make use of the supplies to arrange a marijuana develop. However that by no means occurred.
On Jan. 16, 2019, the 2 roommates argued once more. When Brinson stepped exterior to smoke a cigarette, Irvine informed Quinlan to “do it,” in line with an affidavit. Quinlan took Brinson’s gun, waited whereas Brinson used the lavatory, after which shot Brinson within the head when he emerged from the bathroom. Brinson died instantly.
Irvine and Quinlan dragged Brinson’s physique to the plastic-covered basement, the place Quinlan mentioned he chopped the physique up with the hand noticed.
Round 3 a.m. on Jan. 17, 2019, Quinlan known as Atencio and informed her “it occurred,” she informed investigators. He requested her to come back assist him clear up, and to carry trash luggage. Atencio stopped by a Walmart in Westminster and bought the “greatest, thickest” trash luggage she might discover, together with some drinks, and drove out to the house, in line with an affidavit. There, she held the trash luggage whereas Quinlan put different luggage — filled with Brinson’s physique elements — into the luggage she held. She helped to tie up the luggage.
Later that day, Quinlan and Atencio drove out to an space south of Byers, east of Denver, and ditched the luggage underneath a big pine tree. That evening, the pair went to an Applebee’s restaurant and paid with Brinson’s bank card, court docket data present.
Later, Atencio grew involved that Brinson’s head could possibly be used to determine him. She returned to the dump web site and eliminated Brinson’s head from the trash luggage. She tried to tug out his tooth with pliers, after which ran over the top together with her automotive earlier than shifting it alone to a brand new web site a couple of half-mile away from the remainder of Brinson’s physique, court docket data present.
Brinson’s household reported him as lacking a number of days after the killing. On Feb. 7, 2019, Quinlan and Atencio have been pulled over for a visitors cease in Texas. Quinlan gave the officer a faux identification after which drove away, main police on a pursuit that ended when he crashed. Investigators later discovered Brinson’s blood and a pistol within the car.
A Jefferson County Sheriff’s Workplace investigator interviewed Quinlan whereas he was in jail in Texas on April 3, 2019, and he confessed, claiming he acted alone, in line with an affidavit.
“I did it, I killed Joe,” he mentioned, in line with an affidavit filed towards him.
The fallout
All three — Quinlan, Atencio and Irvine — ultimately have been arrested in reference to Brinson’s slaying. After important delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Quinlan was convicted of first-degree homicide at a jury trial in 2021 and sentenced to life in jail. Irvine pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide in 2022 and was sentenced to 46 years in jail.
Atencio cooperated with authorities. She led investigators to Brinson’s head and testified towards Quinlan throughout his jury trial as a part of a plea settlement. She pleaded responsible to 2 felonies in 2020: being an adjunct to a criminal offense and conspiring to tamper with a physique, and her sentencing was delayed till after she testified towards the 2 males.
As a part of the plea deal, she was sentenced in Could 2022 to serve two years of work-release in addition to six years of probation, court docket data present.
Nonetheless, she went on to violate the phrases of her work-release and probation, and this fall returned to court docket to be re-sentenced. Prosecutors with the First Judicial District Lawyer’s Workplace requested she be sentenced to 6 years on every depend to run consecutively, for a complete of 12 years in jail, spokeswoman Brionna Boatright mentioned.
Jefferson County District Court docket Choose Meegan Miloud as an alternative sentenced Atencio to 6 years in jail on Sept. 8. Simply weeks after the sentencing, jail officers alerted Brinson’s household that Atencio was arising for parole.
Most prisoners in Colorado are eligible for parole after serving 50% of their sentence. Atencio had greater than two years price of pre-sentence confinement credit score when she was sentenced in September, and that point served counted as a part of her six-year sentence.
It’s widespread for defendants to obtain credit score for time served when they’re sentenced, although the big quantity of credit score Atencio obtained is a bit out of the abnormal and displays the two-year delay between her plea and her sentencing, Boatright mentioned.
Due to that credit score, Atencio is eligible for parole in April, simply seven months after the re-sentencing.
The attorneys who represented Atencio didn’t return requests for remark.
Brinson’s family really feel she shouldn’t be launched from jail, and Boatright mentioned the district legal professional’s workplace shares their concern.
“For the household, it’s simply been devastation another time, each single time,” Frost mentioned. “It simply appears as if she is rarely punished for something.”
She remembered Brinson as a “candy, sort man,” who loved driving grime bikes, mountaineering and music. He’d been having a tough time earlier than he was killed, she mentioned, largely as a result of his brother died about 18 months earlier.
She plans to talk towards Atencio’s launch on parole on the Jan. 17 listening to.
“She ought to undoubtedly not be in public in any respect,” she mentioned. “Somebody who’s able to doing this, who has zero regret — it’s not like she did this after which simply broke down in tears and mentioned, ‘I’m sorry, I used to be tousled on medicine and alcohol and I made a horrible choice.’ Nothing.”
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