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Man who was on parole after prior violent offenses now accused in 4 murders
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A Colorado parolee once classified as a “very high” risk of reoffending is now charged in four separate killings across three counties — including three counts of first-degree murder tied to an alleged 2025 crime spree.
Ricky Lee Roybal-Smith, 38, faces two counts of first-degree murder in Adams County, one count of first-degree murder in Denver and a newly filed second-degree murder charge in Arapahoe County connected to a 2022 death.
He is being held without bond in the Denver jail, prosecutors confirmed.
In 2022, Roybal-Smith was accused of threatening customers at a retail store. One day later, a woman named Meg Eberhart was found unconscious at a light rail station and died days later, 9NEWS reported. Police suspected foul play and focused on Roybal-Smith, who was on parole for a previous offense at the time. But prosecutors did not file charges because the coroner ruled her cause of death “undetermined.”
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Ricky Lee Roybal-Smith is facing multiple murder charges across three Colorado counties, according to prosecutors. (Denver Police Department)
Instead, Roybal-Smith was sentenced to four years in prison for the incident at the retail store.
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According to 9NEWS, Roybal-Smith later became eligible for parole and was released in January 2025 after his risk level had been downgraded from “very high” to “moderate.”
Within months, police allege he launched a violent spree in Aurora.
According to police and the Adams County Coroner’s Office, Roybal-Smith brutally stabbed two homeless men to death in separate attacks. Authorities alleged one of the homeless men was stabbed roughly 90 times.
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An Aurora Police vehicle is seen at a crime scene after authorities arrested Ricky Lee Roybal-Smith in connection with a series of killings and violent incidents across the Denver metro area. (Aurora Police Department)
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Later that same day, Roybal-Smith was arrested in Denver in connection with an alleged hit-and-run involving two pedestrians, according to Law & Crime.
After being booked into jail, his cellmate, 36-year-old Vincent Chacon, was found dead within hours.
The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner ruled Chacon’s death a homicide caused by “asphyxia due to external compression of the neck,” or strangulation. Roybal-Smith was charged with first-degree murder in that case. He was also charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection to the homeless men’s stabbing deaths.
In addition, prosecutors charged Roybal-Smith with second-degree murder in connection to Eberhart’s 2022 death.
“While the manner of the death ruling of the Arapahoe County Coroner has not changed, our office continued to review the evidence… and have determined that the Second-Degree Murder charge is appropriate at this time,” Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley told Fox News Digital. “As with every case we file, we will only pursue charges when we believe the evidence can reasonably prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt in court.”
District Attorney Amy Padden added that while her office does not control parole decisions, the case raises broader concerns.
“We are aware of several cases in which repeat, violent offenders have been released from prison to parole earlier than expected only to go on to commit additional crimes,” Padden said. “The privilege of parole should only be granted when there is substantial evidence of rehabilitation, acceptance of accountability, and lack of danger to the community.”
An Arapahoe County spokesperson emphasized that Roybal-Smith is not on the streets and remains in custody on a no-bond hold related to his Denver case.
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Interior view of the Arapahoe County Detention Center in Colorado, used as a reference image in a case involving multiple homicide charges in the Denver metro area. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
A 9NEWS Investigates series previously reported that Roybal-Smith’s assessment scores contained errors and that he had been downgraded before his release.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Colorado Department of Corrections and the Colorado State Board of Parole for comment but did not receive responses by publication.
George Brauchler, a Republican district attorney for Colorado’s 23rd Judicial District, said the case reflects broader sentencing and parole policy changes.
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“We Lead with our humanity” sign at Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center in Denver, Colorado, on Thursday, August 3, 2023. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
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“This gets attention because it’s so incredibly huge — a guy killed three people and menaced someone else,” Brauchler said. “But parole violators occur everywhere all the time.”
Brauchler argued Colorado has reduced incarceration levels even as its population has grown.
George Brauchler, a Republican district attorney for Colorado’s 23rd Judicial District, said dangerous people are being put back on the street. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
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“The simple answer is this state, through the legislature and the governor and the parole board, has made a conscious decision that we choose to put these people back out on the street and put the community at risk more than we want to spend the tax dollars to keep them incarcerated,” he said.
Colorado Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson also criticized the state’s parole system, calling the case a “serious failure” in Colorado’s criminal justice system.
“These latest charges in this tragic case highlight a serious failure in Colorado’s criminal justice system,” Simpson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Families are grieving today because he was allowed back onto our streets.”
Simpson said the case underscores the need to strengthen parole oversight and ensure violent offenders serve appropriate sentences.
“Parole must never become a revolving door for violent offenders,” he said. “Public safety must remain the top priority here in Colorado.”
He added that government agencies must be held accountable if system failures contributed to repeat offenses.
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Eberhart’s daughter, Zada Veniegas, previously told 9NEWS she felt relief upon learning prosecutors had finally filed charges in her mother’s death.
“At least the fact of what he did is being acknowledged on the legal end of things,” she said. “I think it’s important that she wasn’t forgotten.”
Roybal-Smith is scheduled for an arraignment in Adams County on March 30 and remains in custody on a no-bond hold.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced multiple hate crime charges, as well as assault and vandalism charges against an Oakland man for an incident that happened in the Castro District last month.
On Thursday afternoon, Hans Haken pleaded not guilty to one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, one count of vandalism, one count of hit-and-run, and one count of reckless driving.
Prosecutors also allege each of the felony assault counts was a hate crime.
“In San Francisco, we have zero tolerance for any hate, hateful acts, certainly that cross the criminal line, and we will do everything that we can to protect our residents from these types of incidents,” said Jenkins at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
It was on May 16, around 5:30 p.m., when prosecutors say Haken spray-painted a homophobic slur on the wall next to Chartreuse by Roje, a gay-owned floral boutique in San Francisco’s Castro District.
“It was a reminder that even though we’re here in Castro, San Francisco, we live in this well-protected bubble that we have created very passionately and strongly, that that can still happen,” said Jeffrey Dumlao, the owner of Chartreuse by Roje. “If anything, that is what’s scary, that it happened here in broad daylight of all times.”
Dumlao says his store had already closed by that time, but Justin Donnelly, who lives above the store, heard the spray-painting and came down to confront the man and tell him to stop.
“He just became very agitated,” Donnelly said. “I tried to remain calm and just tell him, like, sir, you know, I don’t, I don’t, I’m not involved in any of that. I’m just, I live here, right, and this is, this is my home, and you know, this is vandalism.”
Donnelly says when he took a picture of Haken’s license plate, Haken got in the car and tried to run him over. Then, prosecutors say he got out of the car and punched Donnelly in the jaw while uttering homophobic slurs.
“I’m definitely doing a lot better than I was. It’s been, I don’t know, a month or so,” Donnelly said.
He says the incident has shaken him, but he’s been lifted up by the community’s support and law enforcement.
“A lot of people have said, ‘oh my god, I can’t believe something like this could happen in San Francisco, of all places.’ And the fact is that something like this can happen anywhere, but in San Francisco, we don’t stand for it, and we deal with it, so, so that makes me feel good,” Donnelly said.
In announcing the charges, Jenkins pointed out the climate in this country has become more hostile to the LGBTQ community. She says that makes it even more important for elected officials to protect that community, just like they do every other community.
Factors such as declining birth rates and families moving out of the city are contributing to declining enrollment at Denver Public Schools. In turn, it’s reshaping the district’s future.
“I think we’re in a good position, but it’s responsible for us to always be looking in the future and knowing we have to make some adjustments,” said Chuck Carpenter, the district’s CFO.
In a two-year span between this past school year and next, DPS expects a decline in enrollment of around 1,700 students.
“We haven’t really seen anything like this,” said Carpenter in response to the consistent decline.
Because of this trend, the district is facing a $28 million structural deficit over the next five years.
“We have a balanced budget now, and we’re not predicting that we’ll have an unbalanced budget in three years,” said Carpenter. “We’re saying we need to make adjustments over the next three, four years, so that our budgets are balanced.”
DPS’s Director of Campus Planning, Andrew Huber, told CBS Colorado in an interview last month that those adjustments will likely include closing down more schools.
“Additional school closures will be necessary in the upcoming years. When exactly that would be is hard to forecast right now,” said Huber.
The district’s CFO says his biggest takeaway from a recent round of closures is to make sure to give families options for what’s next.
“No one wants their school closed, but the second-best option isn’t going to be the same for every family,” said Carpenter.
This issue could be one Denver faces for years to come.
“We sort of say, how many kids are born here? Because in five years, those kids will be kindergartners,” Carpenter added.
The city’s birth rate peaked in 2005, meaning those babies have already graduated high school. And, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, more young families move out of Denver and into surrounding counties than move into the city.
“I think school consolidation is very — I understand why people want to talk about it, but I think it’s more about, like, how do we make sure that the programs that are offered are rich programs,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter also says the district is closely monitoring some potential cuts to federal grants for students of poverty and language learners. He says those decisions will be made by October for the start of the new fiscal year, and cuts would have a “terrible” impact.
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