Lawmakers Face Public Backlash After Violent Suspect Freed Under New Incompetency Law

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics

A high-profile case out of Weld County involving an attempted murder has renewed debate about the state’s competency laws and public safety.

The case arose from an incident last spring, in which a group of men led by 21-year-old Debisa Ephraim allegedly attacked a man and his friends in downtown Greeley. After Ephraim was found incompetent to stand trial, his charges, which included attempted murder, were dropped, and he was released from the Weld County Jail earlier this month.

The office of Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams posted a video of the Greeley attack on X, saying Ephraim had been released under a 2024 law that, he said, required individuals declared incompetent and unlikely to be restored to be released from jail.

“The state legislature and the Governor have continued to weaken the criminal justice system by handcuffing law enforcement, prosecutors and judges for the sake of criminals,” the sheriff’s office said. “Colorado HB24-1034 has created a crisis where very dangerous individuals are being released to the street to reoffend over and over, this is the latest example.”

Sen. Judy Amabile, D-Denver, who authored the 2024 law, said jails were always required to release individuals found incompetent and unrestorable — and that her bill merely requires courts to dismiss their cases.

That said, she agrees, she told Colorado Politics, that some people should not be released into back into the streets.

‘A senseless act of violence’

According to the victim’s sister, who asked to remain anonymous, her brother and his friends were leaving a bar in downtown Greeley on a Friday night last April when Ephraim and about a dozen other men attacked them.

The sister was not completely clear on what happened next, but she said people were able to identify Ephraim from videos of the incident.

A family member of the victim was able to track down Ephraim’s social media profile, where he allegedly made posts bragging about the attack and other fights he had participated in, the sister said.

“It was just the weirdest stuff; it was kind of shocking,” the victim’s sister said. “The whole thing was scary, but the more we discovered, the worse it got.”

Meanwhile, her brother, the victim, fought for his life. He spent over a month in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury and had to learn how to walk and talk again. While he has mostly recovered, his speech will never fully return to normal, she said.

“His speech will never be the same, and emotionally, the fear and the anxiety that his wife had about losing him and then spending all that time in the hospital and not knowing what the full ramifications are, the loss of income,” she said, “there’s just so much that changed our lives for something that didn’t need to happen.”

“It was a senseless act of violence to the most amazing person. My brother is the sweetest, kindest person; it just seems so unfair,” she said.

The victim’s sister said her family was shocked when they learned the judge had to dismiss Ephraim’s charges after he was found incompetent to stand trial.

“The judge was like, ‘Woah, we have this attempted murder situation that just happened a few days ago and you’re asking me to dismiss the case?’” the victim’s sister said. “It was bizarre.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT COLORADO POLITICS