By Lance Benzel
The Gazette
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Police say a 19-year-old man had damning evidence in his pocket when he was arrested last August in a brutal gang slaying in Colorado Springs — a finger chopped from the victim’s hand.
Jordan Rowland will stand trial for first-degree murder in the Aug. 16 hatchet slaying of William Mickle, 4th Judicial District Judge David A. Gilbert ruled Monday after prosecutors outlined their case against him.
Both men were homeless and knew each other from Acacia Park and other gathering places. Colorado Springs police detectives testified the killing appeared to be a gang hit over rumors that Mickle had been snitching to police.
The finger was apparently kept as proof that Rowland saw the job through to completion, police detectives testified. Authorities say they haven’t been able to track down the local gang leader who gave the order.
Mickle, 20, was found partially clothed in a ravine in Colorado Springs, the victim of a vicious assault with a hatchet or machete.
El Paso County Coroner Dr. Robert Bux said Mickle suffered 24 chop wounds to his head and face and deep cuts in his neck.
The killing likely occurred within the past 24 hours, Bux said.
Rowland was arrested Aug. 18 at Penrose Library downtown after the mother of a 16-year-old runaway called police and said he could be found there with her daughter. Rowland and the teen were avoiding the girl’s family and planned to get married.
While checking Rowland for weapons, Officer William Betts testified he reached into Rowland’s pants pocket and withdrew what he thought was a methamphetamine pipe wrapped in a brown paper napkin.
“The first thing he said to me as I started to unroll the object was, ‘She gave it to me,’” Betts said, referring to his fiance.
Confronted over the finger, the girl later told police that she was with Rowland when gang leader named “Brooklyn” ordered the hit on Mickle.
During a conversation at a bus stop on the afternoon of Mickle’s death, Brooklyn told Rowland that he had a “green light” to kill Mickle and ordered him to keep a finger as proof, the girl told police. Her name is being withheld because she is a juvenile.
Rowland’s defense attorneys noted that Rowland told a police detective he witnessed Mickle’s death but said that two other men — including the gang leader — were responsible for carrying out the murder.
Rowland told police the men made him push a blade into Mickle’s neck and keep the dead man’s finger so that he couldn’t deny involvement.
Public defender Michele Newell asked police about other potential suspects, such as a man who blamed Mickle for breaking up a relationship. She also noted that police initially believed a different man ordered the hit.
Other witnesses testified that Rowland took credit for the killing, police testified.
Police said Rowland’s story changed several times. At the time of his arrest, for example, he claimed he had accidentally put on someone else’s pants and didn’t know where the finger came from.
Rowland is due to be arraigned Jan. 17.
Copyright 2011 The Gazette