DENVER – A Colorado man has pleaded not guilty after he was accused of bludgeoning four people to death with a hammer in 1984 in two separate attacks.
Alexander Ewing, 60, entered his plea Monday in Arapahoe County after DNA evidence connected him to the crime scenes, The Denver Post reported.
Prosecutors said he will not face the death penalty but instead faces life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years for each of the first-degree murder counts he is charged with. Ewing is being represented by the state public defender’s office, which does not comment on cases.
Prosecutors have accused Ewing of killing Patricia Louise Smith, 50, in Lakewood on Jan. 10, 1984, and then killing Bruce and Debra Bennett and their 7-year-old daughter six days later in Aurora. The couple’s 3-year-old daughter survived the attack, authorities said.
The slayings have remained unsolved for over three decades. The suspect was named the “Hammer Killer.”
Ewing was arrested in August 1984 and sentenced to 40 years in prison for two attempted murders in Nevada. But he was not connected to the Colorado killings until 2018 ,when his DNA was matched. He was in prison when he was charged.
First Judicial District Attorney Peter Weir said in August that he would not seek the death penalty against Ewing in Smith’s killing, arguing it was “not a lawful sentencing option” because of a lack of aggravating factors necessary to warrant a death sentence.
A date for trial in Jefferson County has not yet been set.
Eighteenth Judicial District Chief Judge Michelle Amico ruled Friday that Ewing could not face the death penalty in connection to charges related to the slaying of the Bennett family, arguing the death penalty statute violated the state’s constitution.
A trial date in Arapahoe County was scheduled for April.
