Retrial in Coal Creek triple-homicide rescheduled for April

The retrial of the man accused of a 2017 triple-murder in a Coal Creek Canyon home has been set back to April.

Garrett Coughlin, 30, was convicted in 2019 of three counts of felony first-degree murder and one count of aggravated robbery in the shooting deaths of Wallace White, Kelly Sloat-White, and Emory Fraker on April 13, 2017, at the Whites’ home in Coal Creek Canyon.

However, former Boulder District Judge Judith LaBuda found that one of the jurors deliberately and repeatedly lied or misled the court about her family’s criminal history. LaBuda then granted an appeal and overturned the conviction.

The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office appealed LaBuda’s decision, but it was upheld by the Colorado Court of Appeals. Prosecutors asked the Colorado Supreme Court to take up the case, but it declined to do so.

Coughlin was originally set for trial on Nov. 6 but is now set for a three-week trial on April 4 on three counts of felony murder and one count of robbery.

Coughlin remains in custody.

While felony murder has since been downgraded to a Class 2 felony, because Coughlin was originally charged before the change in law he is still facing life in prison on all three murder counts if he is convicted.

The three bodies were found on April 15, 2017, in the 800 block of Divide View Drive. White and Sloat-White lived at the home, and Fraker was White’s brother and lived in Broomfield.

An arrest affidavit stated all three suffered gunshot wounds, and investigators said they were able to tie Coughlin to the gun used in the homicides. During the investigation, detectives learned that guns were missing from Coughlin’s mother’s house, and Coughlin had departed Colorado the week after the homicides.

Investigators said they tied Coughlin to the home on Divide View Drive and determined through interviews that he had shown up four hours late for work on the morning police believe the three were killed.

Deputies removed 100 marijuana plants from the property during the investigation, and witnesses told investigators that they saw Coughlin with large amounts of pot packaged in a manner consistent with the marijuana owned by the victims, as well as large amounts of cash following the homicides.