Colorado
MCU’s Captain America, Anthony Mackie, talks about filming “Elevation” in Colorado, Coach Prime and more
Anthony Mackie wants to get something off his chest before answering any questions.
“That Meow (Wolf Denver) museum is the craziest (stuff) I’ve ever seen in my life,” said the 46-year-old actor, unprompted, referring to the surreal installation just west of downtown.
That’s saying something, given Mackie’s career as an action hero and low-key heartthrob. As a veteran of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he’s finally making his film debut as the new Captain America in Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” on Feb. 14, 2025 — following the groundwork laid by his 2021 Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”
More recently, Mackie’s been battling monsters in the post-apocalyptic thriller “Elevation,” which was shot mostly in Boulder and Golden and is in theaters now. He plays Will, a father desperate to find medical supplies for his ailing son. That forces him to descend the 8,000-foot-and-higher safety zone of the Rocky Mountains, and into the lower-elevation danger zone where vicious monsters roam free.
That danger zone? Boulder — which is rendered as an empty town just starting to be reclaimed by nature, following the disaster that violently erased most of the human race. The film co-stars Morena Baccarin (in arguably one of her best roles) as disillusioned scientist Nina, and Maddie Hasson as salty young traveler Katie. Together, they navigate abandoned tunnels, an empty hospital and other spooky locales while taking center-frame in gorgeous drone shots of Colorado’s piney expanses.
“I was surprised at the level of chill of everybody in Boulder. Maybe they were all high? But a lot of them weren’t,” Mackie said. “Except for that one old lady in the gym. You know who you are, and you’re mean.”
Mackie likes to do superset workouts, he said, so he would do a heavy press with a medium fly, for example, without taking breaks between machines. Mackie’s elderly nemesis, who stared him down throughout his workouts, copied everything he did.
“So I’m like, ‘Fine, I’m just going to do some rows and pull-ups.’ And she comes around and is like, ‘You can’t even do a pull-up!’ ” he said with a laugh. “And I’d have my headphones in, and she’d be like, ‘Excuse me, no phone in the gym.’ I was about ready to fly my sister in to fight this girl and go Liam Neeson on her.”
He jests, but he took his promo duties for “Elevation” seriously. Mackie and “Elevation” director George Nolfi (“The Adjustment Bureau,” “Spectral”) visited the Denver Film Festival on Nov. 4 to screen and talk about the movie. Mackie even made it up to visit with buddy Deion Sanders in Boulder, hosting a screening for Coach Prime, the University of Colorado Boulder football team, and Super Bowl champ Warren Sapp — as well as a separate Boulder cast-and-crew screening, followed by the Denver Film Fest visit. Phew.
“I did go to a lot of University of Colorado football games while we were shooting,” Mackie said. “But (Sanders) had told me Boulder was like the Atlanta of the West Coast. I must have missed it by two months! When I was in Boulder I was the only Black dude there. Kiss my (butt), Deion Sanders.”
Mackie’s first few weeks of filming in Colorado in late 2022 were challenging in a different way. As a New Orleans resident, he went from sea level to elevations of up to 11,000 feet, he said. He and his stunt man would jog together every day, and go hiking every third day in the Flatirons.
“It was painful coming back from Colorado to New Orleans because the air is so heavy and I was so opened up,” he said. “I felt like I was taking in so much water with my breathing.”
He loved Colorado, but doesn’t miss Boulder much, dubbing it an isolating place that’s “myopic” in its approach to communal dwelling and living in general. The isolation helped with his performance in “Elevation,” he said, since his character Will goes through the same feelings.
“I’ll tell you what I learned in Colorado,” Mackie said. “I thought there would be good fishing, beautiful countryside, all of that. And I was right. The fly fishing was amazing, I got a lot of brookies (trout), but I didn’t go hunting, which I was mad about. Next time I’m coming back hard.”
Colorado
Children victimized in Northern Colorado after convicted sex offender allegedly commits disgusting act of food tampering
A convicted sex offender who allegedly contaminated cupcakes for a child’s birthday party with his bodily fluids will remain behind bars through at least Dec. 20. Stephen Masalta is accused of masturbating in a Fort Collins Safeway grocery store, contaminating cupcakes, fruits, donuts and frosting at his former place of employment.
Masalta was first arrested by Fort Collins Police Services in early 2024 after the department spent months trying to find him. Police responded to dozens of reports of a short man exposing himself outside of coffee shops in Fort Collins and Loveland at early morning hours. The man was regularly described as being short, either White or Asian, wearing a mask and dark clothing.
After months of investigations, FCPS identified and arrested Masalta.
According to documents obtained by CBS News Colorado’s Dillon Thomas, police located many concerning pieces of evidence at Masalta’s property during a search warrant. That included clothing matching descriptions of the suspect at the coffee shops, several phones and hard drives with explicit content on them and a car that contained contents like binoculars. Police reported that they ran a black light through his vehicle and found the driver seat was covered in bodily fluid.
Police also reportedly found images on Masalta’s electronics that they believed to be both clothed and exposed photos of women who police did not believe were aware they were being photographed. Police said Masalta had taken notes about the sexual acts he wanted to do to the women and had even drawn sexual images over some of the photos.
However, potentially of greatest concern to some, police said they located videos of Masalta allegedly contaminating food items at Safeway off of Harmony Road in southern Fort Collins.
Police described videos of a man, who they presented as Masalta, touching pastries and other baked goods at Safeway with his genitals.
Police also said they saw videos of Masalta releasing bodily fluids onto fresh fruit, a bucket of pastry frosting and even onto a custom order of cupcakes. Fort Collins police said they were able to tell based from the video that the cupcakes were clearly decorated for a child’s birthday and even still had the customer’s order form taped to them.
Those cupcakes were then served at a child’s birthday party.
The parent of two of the children attending the party, ages 2 and 5, agreed to share their traumatic story exclusively with Thomas. However, because her children were victims of a sex crime, CBS News Colorado agreed to not share her identity.
“When police first come to your door, what goes through your head?” Thomas asked.
“I thought my husband was hurt,” she said.
While she was fortunate that her husband was okay, she would quickly learn her young children had been victimized.
“They asked me if my children, and or my husband and I, had eaten cupcakes that were served there,” she said.
“Could you have ever fathomed what they were about to tell you?” Thomas asked.
“No. I don’t think anybody could have ever imagined this,” she said.
Detectives then told her that they had confirmed the cupcakes her family consumed were the cupcakes seen in the videos allegedly found on Masalta’s devices.
Police said Masalta was employed at the Safeway at the time. Officers reportedly went to the bakery department and were able to confirm that the room the videos were recorded in was also in the Harmony Safeway.
“When you found out it wasn’t just you and your trust violated, but it was your children as well, what was that like?” Thomas asked.
“Luckily, they are so young that we haven’t communicated any of this to them. But, we as a family had to go get HIV and STD testing,” she said. “All the joy that comes with a birthday and cupcakes and all the amazing celebrations that happen with that kind of thing is now, in my mind, always associated with that. And, watching them enjoy those things is not the same anymore.”
Masalta, a registered sex offender, was previously arrested in California for placing video recording devices inside church bathrooms to see girls and women using toilets.
The woman Thomas spoke with said Masalta’s alleged actions in Colorado have tarnished her ability to enjoy everyday life. She noted she has to drive by the Safeway in question twice daily. She also said, when she goes to grocery stores now, she can’t see the bakery section as normally as she once could.
“You should be able to go to a kid’s birthday party and not worry about eating cupcakes,” she said.
After being arrested by FCPS, Masalta’s defense attorney and the prosecution reached a plea agreement. In exchange for a guilty plea, Masalta would’ve been sentenced to 364 days in jail with credit for time served. He would also have to undergo 10 years of intensive sexual offender probation supervision. The deal also had other financial stipulations. However, due to spending most of 2024 in jail, Masalta was nearly released to community corrections after the agreement would have been processed through sentencing by a judge.
However, Masalta was not accepted into community corrections, also known as a halfway house. The plea agreement was then voided, as acceptance into community corrections was listed as a deal breaker for the agreement which Masalta had already signed.
The woman CBS News Colorado interviewed was one of just several victims of Masalta’s alleged actions that told Thomas they felt the initial plea was poorly constructed.
“According to the documents we obtained, he was convicted of sex crimes in California. He is accused of exposing himself at coffee shops. He is accused of contaminating food your children ate. What was you response when you saw the plea agreement he was offered?” Thomas asked.
“Disappointment,” she said. “I don’t think what they have done is enough in my opinion,” she said. “In our opinion the harsh end of the spectrum should be given with the pattern and reach of these crimes.”
A Larimer County judge rescheduled sentencing for Dec. 20, giving several weeks for Masalta and the prosecution to potentially iron out a new plea agreement. It is also possible that the case could now more forward toward trial.
District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin’s office said they were unable to conduct an interview for this report due to the case remaining open as of Friday. However, they issued the following statement.
“As we’ve stated in previous hearings of this case, the law is completely inadequate to account for the nature of these incidents. We are constrained by the law and the required concurrent sentencing of most of these counts, and our goal remains to piece together the greatest level of accountability possible for the community. We are committed to doing everything we can to deter this type of behavior and get justice for these victims who are rightfully traumatized.”
The woman CBS News Colorado spoke with said her family is hoping the plea agreement falling through will result in Masalta being convicted and sentenced to extended time in prison.
“Has this changed how you see and experience life forever?” Thomas asked.
“It does. It is so upsetting,” she said as she wiped away tears. “I hope someday I will be able to move forward and not have that happen. I feel very upset that that has been something that has been taken from us.”
Colorado
Colorado funeral home owners plead guilty to corpse abuse after nearly 200 bodies found decomposing
The owners of a Colorado funeral home accused of piling hundreds of bodies in room-temperature conditions inside a dilapidated building and giving loved ones concrete instead of ashes have pleaded guilty to corpse abuse.
Jon and Carie Hallford, who own the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, pleaded guilty to 191 counts of abuse of a corpse on Friday.
“The bodies were [lying] on the ground, stacked on shelves, left on gurneys, stacked on top of each other or just piled in rooms,” prosecutor Rachael Powell said in court.
Their loved ones are “intensely and forever outraged,” she added. Some of the families were in the courtroom when they pleaded guilty.
MIXED-UP REMAINS, ROTTING BODIES, FAKE ASHES: HOW GRIEVING FAMILIES UNCOVERED THESE 5 FUNERAL HOME HORRORS
Crystina Page, whose son died in 2019, said outside the courtroom on Friday: “He laid in the corner of an inoperable fridge, dumped out of his body bag with rats and maggots eating his face for four years. Now every moment that I think of my son, I’m having to think of Jon and Carie, and that’s not going away.”
The Hallfords also faced charges of theft, money laundering and forgery, which were dismissed with their plea deals.
The couple spent $882,300 in COVID relief funds on things like vacations, cosmetic surgery, car and tuition for their child.
Jon Hallford could serve 20 years in prison under the plea deal and Carie Hallford could serve 15 to 20 years.
Six people who objected to the plea deals, calling their recommended sentences insufficient, will get a chance to speak before they’re sentenced in April.
MOURNING LOVED ONES TARGETED BY ‘DESPICABLE’ FUNERAL HOME SCAM
If the judge rejects the plea deal, the case may still go to trial.
The Hallfords already pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in October in connection with their misuse of funds.
The accusations go back to 2019 and the improperly stored bodies were discovered after neighbors reported a stench coming from the building.
Authorities in hazmat gear found bodies stacked on top of each other, some so decayed they couldn’t be identified, and the place was infested with bugs.
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Following the gruesome discovery, Colorado has tightened funeral home regulations.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Colorado
Colorado weather: Temperatures above normal Friday before snow returns
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