CONEJOS – Only two people know what happened at Romeo’s Little Market in June 2016 and one will spend life plus 23 years in prison.
James H. Sprouse, 77, was found dead in April 2017 sealed in an old freezer in the office of small store he once operated in downtown Romeo His head had been bludgeoned in by an unidentified blunt object. His step grandson, Michael Robinson, 35, was convicted of first-degree murder after a jury deliberated 90 minutes on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019.
Robinson also was convicted of tampering with evidence, aggravated motor vehicle theft, concealing a death and abuse of a corpse.
Photographs of the freezer, both sealed and opened, along with what was in it, as well as two blood-soaked mattresses, the clothing Sprouse’s corpse was wearing, the interior of the vehicle and the materials used to wrap the old freezer were given to each juror, along with diagrams of the apartment and store, images of the building’s outside and copies of every document, test and warrant involved in the investigation.
Robinson and Sprouse had been living in an apartment adjacent to what had been Romeo’s Little Market between June 4 and the middle of that month 2016, when Sprouse disappeared and police in California impounded his vehicle.
The last time anyone talked with Sprouse was by telephone May 27 of that year when he told his son-in-law he was afraid of Robinson and wanted him to leave. The older man then stopped doing things he ordinarily did daily, such as sharing coffee with friends and going to check his mail.
Sprouse was last seen, but not heard, from June 4, 2016, when a neighbor went to take him a survival kit and saw him lying covered with a blanket the floor of his living room until April 2017 when Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) agents found him sealed in a chest freezer.
Sprouse was known to sleep on two mattresses on the floor in his living room and to sleep late, since he was a night owl. The mattresses, soaked with blood, were found alongside the freezer, rolled up and covered with cardboard.
The CBI was called to help the Conejos County Sheriff’s Department inspect the small, vacant country store and attached apartment, to determine if a crime had been committed there. The sheriff obtained a search warrant and deputies and agents sent in by breaking through a door in the front of the building.
Public defenders contended there was no proof Robinson was at the apartment when Sprouse died; in addition, the crime of first-degree murder required deliberation and it couldn’t be proven. They also told the jury, there was no proof that Robinson took Sprouse’s vehicle without permission.
Prosecutors argued blood evidence and the placement of Sprouse’s remains in the freezer indicated deliberation and intent, while the elderly man also didn’t seem to have defended himself.
While a coroner ruled the death a homicide, the exact time and day of death could not be determined, since one could not tell if the remains had frozen, thawed, then frozen again, while the seal skewed the decomposition process.
Sprouse was obviously at home and Robinson was seen there during the same time frame. Robinson was seen driving Sprouse’s vehicle and Sprouse was never seen again.
Deputy District Attorney Jordan Welch told the jury Sprouse apparently didn’t allow anyone to drive his vehicle, yet Robinson had been using the Ford Explorer more than 24 hours when it was recovered in California. Robinson also left personal belongings in the SUV, including his birth certificate, along with receipts from use of Sprouse’s ATM card and fast food purchases. He was located sleeping on the floor of a public restroom, on a beach outside San Diego, having drained the old man’s bank account.
Chief Trial Deputy District Attorney Ashley McCuaig told the jury statements made by Robinson to an investigator after his arrest in Indio, Calif., indicated he was distancing himself from Sprouse, while other remarks showed “consciousness of guilt.”
Public Defender Kalie Letindres argued that there was no proof Sprouse was killed in his residence by Robinson; there was no proof either man was there during the time the murder allegedly took place, yet investigating officers seized upon Robinson as the perpetrator and looked no further.
Conejos County Sheriff’s Sergeant Margarita Ortega, lead investigator, said she identified Robinson after he was transferred in custody from California and swabbed him for DNA before securing the swabs in an envelope and placing it in the jail evidence locker, where it would be picked up and documented by another officer.
Nicholas Summers, a sergeant in the sheriff’s investigations unit, presented a list of items submitted as evidence to the CBI and said he did not know who placed three of the items in the evidence locker.
Tanya Atkinson a forensic scientist with the CBI assisted at the crime scene and helped package up evidence along with plastic wrap and duct tape from the freezer.
She then examined items in the print lab and determined some prints belonged to Sprouse, who had prints in the FBI data base; Robinson’s were taken from a birth certificate and prints were found on other items.
Most of the prints came from the SUV located in California, she said.
Forensic Scientist Caitlyn Rogers, a CBI specialist in serology and DNA analysis, explained in detail the procedure for linking a sample to an individual’s DNA. Some items didn’t provide enough material to arrive at a concrete analysis, she said.
She said some blood was identified on mattresses and clothing and traced conclusively to Sprouse. DNA belonging to both Sprouse and Robinson was found on others.
Rogers said it’s hard to say how DNA gets onto an object or how long it has been there before testing.
Testimony also included a filmed deposition of former Conejos County Sheriff Howard Galvez Jr., who recounted what he remembered about the investigation. Seriously ill, he couldn’t appear in person.
Sheriff’s Deputy Laura Amaya, evidence technician, talked about creating activity logs and listed items in connection with the current case, but didn’t remember specifics about each one.
She said she became evidence custodian in 2017 and logged some evidence out to the CBI, then again when it was returned.
Returning to the stand, Sgt. Summers testified he conducted surveillance of some telephone calls involving Robinson and pulled one recording. The judge did not place it into evidence and the jury was not allowed to hear it.
Veteran CBI Agent Pat Crouch said he became involved with the case on March 15, 2016 when Galvez asked him to talk with some potential suspects. He asked Ortega to obtain a search warrant for the Sprouse property at 115 Main Street in Romeo.
After reviewing what Ortega had written and files she had compiled, he said, “I was convinced Mr. Sprouse would still be inside the residence.”
His remains were in the freezer and blood-soaked mattresses were rolled up nearby. “When I saw the mattresses, I began my investigation there,” Crouch said.
He tracked Robinson’s travels using bank records of debit card use, exhibiting a map to show where the card was used.
Victim impact statements began with Ann Ziel-Sprouse, daughter of victim James Sprouse.
Traveling to Conejos County from California, she and her husband sat through every day of the trial, which began after jury selection was completed Wednesday, Jan. 28, and ended Friday, Feb. 7, with a sentence of life in prison for Robinson.
She said she was sorry Robinson acted as he did. She had hoped he would get his life together, instead, “all we will ever have is a question, ‘Why, why, why?.”
Speaking to Robinson via telephone, Sarah Ann Sprouse, the last of James Sprouse’s two siblings, said, “Michael, I am really sorry you did what you did. I forgive you because God says I have to and I don’t want the death penalty.”
“You destroyed not only Jim, you destroyed an entire family. My brother was good to you, gave you money and took care of you...”
Beginning to levy sentencing, 12th Judicial District Judge Martin Gonzales told Robinson to rise. The convicted man wore an orange Archuleta County Jail suit and heavy chains as opposed to the suit and tie he used every other day of the trial
“For the purpose of the record, even though we use a different count numbers on the jury verdicts, we are talking about count one, murder in the first degree, being found guilty by the jury,” Gonzales began. “ With regard to the first-degree murder charge, the sentence is mandatory and I will impose that.”
“Before I do that formally, I want to point out a couple of things. The death that was suffered by Mr. Sprouse did not need to happen, but it did happen. It happened some 987 days ago.  Mr. Sprouse, by all indications was an honorable man. Given his described nature, he was probably a little rough around the edges.
“I’m from this county and know its people. People from this county are a little bit hardscrabbled. They have to be to survive,” the judge said. “In this context, like others — like many others — he took you in as a family member. One can suppose that he provided this for free and did so probably knowing what you were doing. And yet he kept you and fed you and provided you with a roof over your head. To put it simply, he was an honorable man who did honor to his family.”
“ His death was needless.  I do not know what the precipitating factor was to this death. Only two people in the world know what that was about. One of them stands before me. If you believe in a supreme being, there will come a time of accountability to that entity. Those kinds of eternal consequences are for that supreme being.» 
«We are mere humans.  We can only try to do what is right to maintain civil order, to distinguish the right from the wrong, to uphold the right and to punish the wrong.  That is what our laws are about.  I believe in that.  I believe in the rule of law.  I believe wrongdoers should face punishment. I truly believe that.” 
"Mr. Robinson, you have brought upon yourself, you have brought upon your family and on this community, a point of dishonor. It caused a shame that will forever leave a hole with everybody that was touched by this senseless act. Mr. Sprouse has gone on and he will continue to live, probably in memory, and not forgotten by you every day that you live.»
“On the count of first-degree murder, I impose life imprisonment without parole.  On count four, tampering with the evidence, I impose a maximum sentence of 18 months mandatory parole one year. It is consecutive.  On count five, abuse of the corpse, a class II misdemeanor, I have a one-year sentence and make it concurrent as this would be a county jail sentence. On count six, aggravated motor vehicle theft, I impose the three years with mandatory parole two years and it is consecutive. On count seven, concealing death, class I misdemeanor, I impose a maximum of 18 months and that is concurrent.»
«I do find that the first-degree murder count is a crime of violence. That will be noted. This sentence is required by statute and is necessary as a deterrent to this defendant, as well as others. To do anything less would depreciate the seriousness of what is going on here.»
With that, he remanded Robinson to the Conejos County Sheriff, to be transported to the Colorado Department of Corrections for the rest of his natural life.