Law tied sheriff’s hands as violent suspect walked free in Weld County

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics

eld County Sheriff Steve Reams says a 2024 law required him to release a man who had been charged with attempted murder stemming from an incident in Greeley earlier this year.

According to Reams, 21-year-old Debisa Ephraim was arrested in April and charged with second-degree attempted murder following an altercation between him and another man that had been captured on video.

The victim suffered a brain injury and spent a “substantial” amount of time in the hospital and rehabilitation, but Reams says he is now mostly recovered.

Ephraim, a refugee from Tanzania who had a previous record of violent behavior, had been detained in the Weld County Jail for several months when his defense team asked the court to determine whether he was competent to proceed, Reams said.

Under Colorado law, defendants are considered competent to proceed unless they have a “mental or developmental disability that would prevent them from sufficiently assisting the criminal defense attorney.”

Reams says Ephraim was not found to have any mental illnesses, but his defense argued that because he had not received an education and was not from the United States, he did not understand how the country’s criminal justice system works.

“His comprehension of the criminal justice system is such that, from what we understand, it was believed that he wasn’t capable of understanding the ramifications of what our criminal justice system could or could not do to him,” said Reams, who added that District Attorney Michael Rourke “did everything he knew how to do” to prevent the court from releasing Ephraim.

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