GOLDEN, Colo. (June 9, 2022) – Tyler Condit (DOB: 1-22-1989) was sentenced yesterday by the First Judicial District Court to 38 years in the Department of Corrections for the murder of 22-year-old Joseph Elsey of Arvada. On May 5, 2022, Condit was found guilty at trial of Murder in the Second Degree, Tampering with a Deceased Human Body, and two counts of Tampering with Physical Evidence. Condit faced 16-78 years in prison.
Asking for the maximum possible sentence, prosecutors argued that Condit acted with an exceptional level of callousness and depravity after brutally stabbing Elsey, stuffing his lifeless body into a tote, and the inhumane disposal of his remains in Clear Creek. Prosecutors further noted a lack of remorse and accountability for his actions.
The Court sentenced Condit as follows:
Second Degree Murder – 38 years
Tampering with a Deceased Human Body – 24 years
Tampering with Physical Evidence – 3 years
Tampering with Physical Evidence – 3 years
Those sentences are concurrent with each other with 646 days of presentence confinement credit.
On Aug. 29, 2020, police were called to an apartment in Arvada on a suspicious incident after a friend of Elsey reported that nobody had seen or heard from him since Aug. 24, 2020. Police gained entry to the apartment and observed blood and signs of an attempted clean-up. Investigators learned that Elsey lived at the apartment and that Condit had recently moved in.
Suspected blood samples were collected from the apartment which were later confirmed to be Elsey’s blood. Elsey’s vehicle was also later located in Denver and smelled of bleach.
Condit was arrested in Denver on Sep. 1, 2020, by Arvada police. And on Sep. 6, 2020, Elsey’s deceased body was discovered in Clear Creek County after nearly two weeks of being out in the elements.
At trial, jurors heard expert testimony that Elsey was stabbed in the neck and that other injuries to his body indicated defensive wounds. Condit, who testified in the trial, maintained that during an argument with the victim, Elsey threatened Condit with a knife and was ultimately struck by his own knife and quickly expired. The jury roundly rejected that contention with their verdict of Second Degree Murder.
Both the jury and the bereaved family and friends of Elsey were deprived of knowing the true extent of the knife wounds inflicted on the victim due to Condit’s choice to conceal the victim’s body.
At sentencing, the Court highlighted the inhumanity in allowing the victim to bleed out and not call for help stating, “You failed in that moment. There is a moment in your life where staying out of trouble becomes less important than saving a human life and you didn’t do it. Staying out of trouble was more important than a person dying.”