GOLDEN, Colo. (Apr. 12, 2022) – Alex Christopher Ewing (DOB: 8-14-1960) was sentenced on Tuesday by the First Judicial District Court to life in prison for the 1984 murder of 50-year-old Patricia Smith of Lakewood. On Apr.7, 2022, Ewing was convicted by a Jefferson County jury of murder in the first degree and two counts of first degree – felony murder.
“The defendant is a danger to society, and there are no words to adequately convey the heinousness and depravity of his actions,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Katharine Decker as she asked the court to impose the maximum sentence possible and without credit for time served. “He deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison.”
Smith’s children addressed the court and described what it felt like waiting nearly four decades to see justice for their mother. Family described a beloved mother, grandmother, neighbor, friend, and vibrant member of the community. “We can now go on to celebrate my mother’s beautiful life the way she would have wanted us to,” said Chery Lettin, Smith’s daughter.
Ewing’s sentence will be served consecutively to the three life sentences imposed in Arapahoe County for the murders of Bruce and Debra Bennett and their 7-year-old daughter, Melissa.
On Jan. 10, 1984, Patricia Smith was found beaten to death and sexually assaulted in her home in Lakewood. For over thirty years this case remained unsolved, and it wasn’t until Jul. 2018, when investigators received information from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) regarding a DNA match to the crime scene. The DNA match, from semen left on and around the body of Patricia Smith, identified Ewing, who at the time was an inmate in the custody of the Nevada Department of Corrections.
“We wouldn’t be here today without the dedication of law enforcement, and persistence of the scientists at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation throughout the decades,” said District Attorney Alexis King. “With the sentence that this court imposed, it is the People’s hope that today brings some sense of justice to Patricia Smith’s family and loved ones.”