DEL NORTE — Listening to his own voice describe incidents leading up to the deaths of his mother and stepfather on Oct. 26, 2009, 15-year-old John Michel Caudle showed little emotion.

He will be tried on two counts of first degree murder with deliberation, along with a list of lesser charges geared toward lengthening his sentence, should he be convicted

Caudle will also be held in the Rio Grande County Jail awaiting trial in spite of defense attorneys’ and Guardian Ad Litem Ruth Acheson’s contentions that the housing was considered punishment in violation of the youth’s due process.

The mother of one of his victims wept, a hush fell over the courtroom and a video produced by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Park County Sheriff showed Caudle telling how he killed his mother, Joanne Marlee Rinebarger, 34, and his stepfather, Tracy Aaron Rinebarger, 37.

Testimony leading up to the televised confession began with Rio Grande County Undersheriff Chuck Chick describing the scene inside the Rinebarger home the afternoon of Oct. 27.

As photos of the two deceased victims were passed around to defense and prosecution attorneys, Caudle’s Guardian Ad Litem and the public defender’s investigator put their arms around his scrawny shoulders, rubbed his back and then patted it.

While Chick was at the sheriff’s office working on search warrants for the Rinebarger home, Caudle was stopped by a Park County Sheriff’s deputy for driving his stepfather’s pickup truck in an erratic manner.

Caudle told the deputy he was driving the truck with his parents’ permission so that he could go to the home of an uncle in Dacono. The deputy called Rio Grande County and soon learned that was one of the youth’s many lies.

He also learned that two people were dead at the address listed on vehicle registration papers and took the youth into custody.

Chick was familiar with the residence and its occupants.

In early spring of 2006, he responded to the Rinebarger home pursuant to a call from Tracy Rinebarger reporting that Caudle had threatened his mother.

He found Caudle leaning quietly against the kitchen counter with his head down.

Asked what was wrong, the youth replied that his parents treated him “like a slave.”

Park County Sheriff’s Detective Amy Franck said a lieutenant at the Park County jail called on the evening of Oct. 27 and asked her if she could come in and help agents from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation with a juvenile suspect, who was being held in protective custody while efforts were made to locate his next of kin.

Franck pointed Caudle out as the youth in question and said the interview officers had with him was recorded and transcribed.

The video of the interview brought the deaths of Joanne and Tracy Rinebarger into graphic detail in the words of the young suspect accused of causing those deaths.

Joanne Rinbarger’s mother, Verla Miller of Salida, sat quietly in a corner as Frank and CBI special agent Jodi Wright brought Caudle’s actions to light.

Asked why he did what he did, Caudle said, “I didn’t want to hurt any more. I didn’t want them to hurt me any more.”

The interview began in earnest at about 2:30 a.m. Oct. 28 after Miller arrived and approved the questioning without an attorney present.

Caudle said he had gotten two pistols from Tracy’s gun safe on Oct. 25, taken them to his room and loaded them. When he arrived home from school the next day, his mother began screaming and calling him names over some undone household chores.

According to Caudle, he “just looked at” his mother as she yelled at him and called him such names as a-- hole, jackass and stupid idiot, then he went to his room, got the pistols and opened fire.

When he first shot his mother, she screamed and ran to the kitchen, he said, so he cornered her near the counter and continued firing as she continued screaming. An autopsy showed that Joanne had been hit by nine bullets.

He claimed he wanted to shoot her in the head so she wouldn’t feel anything, but that didn’t happen. He dragged her lifeless body into the master bedroom.

With his mother dead and his stepfather coming home from work soon, Caudle went into a laundry room to wait.

When Tracy arrived and saw all the blood, he screamed for his wife and Caudle shot him in the back of the head. He was still breathing, so another shot was fired into the front of his head.

Caudle said he dragged him into the bedroom, where he observed that Rinebarger was still trying to breathe, so he stuffed earplugs into his nostrils to ensure his death — and stop the bleeding.

Caudle said he cleaned up the blood with some towels and Swiffer pads, moved some wet clothes from the washer to the dryer, watched TV, played some video games and didn’t get much sleep before cleaning out his stepdad’s 2008 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, throwing his work clothes in a pile on the floor, going to school one-half day and hitting the road.

Also testifying at the Thursday preliminary hearing was Delia Malouff, 17, an Alamosa woman who was held with Caudle at the Pueblo Youth Services Center (PYSC).

Describing herself as the only person at PYSC that would be nice to Caudle, Malouff said other people in detention picked on him and she told them to stop.

She said Caudle didn’t stand up for himself and was not aggressive at PYSC.

Malouff also revealed that she had cut a deal with the prosecution that she would be tried as a juvenile instead of an adult for child abuse resulting in the death of her 7-month-old child.

The young woman recounted a tale of woe shared by Caudle, who said he hated his mother and stepfather, who allegedly called him names, laughed at him and “beat the s--t out of him.”

He also allegedly said his mother didn’t love him and burned him with cigarettes, laughed when her husband called John a “faggot” and made him stay in his room.

Part of the closing arguments at the Thursday probable cause hearing centered around bail for Caudle, despite any suggestion as to who might post that bail.

Public Defender Daniel Walzl, arguing for bail and possible lowering of charges, said the prosecution needed to meet a much higher burden of proof than the defense and that had not been met.

Special prosecutor Daniel Edwards of the Colorado Attorney General’s staff said he had spent several decades studying and prosecuting homicides and he had not heard of that higher burden.

He said the defense had “talked about a lot of incidents that may or may not have occurred,” but he saw no evidence of imminent bodily injury that would cause Caudle to act in self-defense.

“His reasoning is that he was called names,” Edwards said, noting that “there is no question that this defendant murdered his mother and stepfather with intent after deliberation.”

In making his ruling as to probable cause that Caudle committed the crimes as charged, 12th Judicial District Judge Martin Gonzales said he wasn’t making a factual determination, but deciding whether there was probable cause to try the defendant as charged.

“What is clear to the court is that we have a situation that, on Oct. 26, in this county, homicides were committed and, on Oct. 27, the bodies were identified.

“The defendant was stopped in Park County and made statements implicating himself in illegal acts and taking the lives of his mother and stepfather with deliberation.”

Gonzales said those statements were backed up by the autopsies and crime scene.

The ambush nature of the shooting and placement of the shots as described by the defendant were backed up by the autopsies, the judge said.

He also said he had no problem believing the vehicle was stolen.

Friday morning, Judge Gonzales ruled that Caudle would be held in the trustee housing at the Rio Grande County Jail awaiting trial.

Caudle will be advised at 9 a.m. March 15 on each separate charge and will tentatively be formally arraigned at 9 a.m. March 23.

















































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