DENVER — Denver District Attorney John Walsh has announced that a jury today convicted Ricky Dawson of First-Degree Murder. Dawson faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole when he’s sentenced on April 29.
On October 5, 1996, Dawson sexually assaulted and murdered 35-year-old Terri Turachak in Turachak’s east Denver apartment.
“Today’s verdict can’t bring back Terri Turachak, but it brings a powerful measure of justice in this case — that Ricky Dawson will spend the rest of his life in prison. I hope Terri’s family and friends feel some sense of justice and of relief with the jury’s decision today,” said DA Walsh. “Dawson committed this brutal and terrible crime nearly 30 years ago – but the Denver DA’s Office and the Denver Police Department did not rest until the case was solved and Dawson prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I want to thank the prosecutors, investigators and victim advocates in my office’s Cold Case Unit, Detective John McGrail with the Denver Police Department’s Homicide Unit, and the dedicated members of the Denver Crime Lab, whose incredible work over three decades resulted in today’s verdict.”
Chief Deputy District Attorney Dawn Weber, Chief Deputy District Attorney Julie Hill, and Associate Deputy District Attorney McKenna Burke led the prosecution team for the Denver DA’s Office.
About the Denver DA’s Office:
The mission of the Denver DA’s Office is to protect the community, to seek equal justice for all, and to improve the quality and fairness of criminal justice on behalf of the people of Colorado. We achieve that mission through excellence in our work investigating and prosecuting crime, supporting victims and their families, working with the community to prevent crime, and providing fair alternatives to incarceration in appropriate cases.
-30-
