The suspect in a 2019 Fourmile Canyon murder has been declared incompetent to proceed to trial.
Stephen Christopher Wolf, 26, is charged with first-degree murder after deliberation, felony murder, first-degree burglary, second-degree burglary, tampering with a deceased human body, vehicular eluding and tampering with physical evidence in the death of Jeffrey Michael Lynch, 57.
At a hearing Wednesday, Boulder District Judge Thomas Mulvahill noted that an evaluation found that Wolf was not competent to stand trial and was unable to assist in his own defense.
Neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys requested a second report, and Mulvahill declared Wolf incompetent to proceed.
Wolf had been scheduled to stand trial this week, but that trial was canceled and the case was placed on hold following Mulvahill’s ruling. The case will not be able to move forward until Wolf can be restored to competency.
Wolf will remain in custody for the restoration process. He is set for a review hearing on Dec. 1.
Wolf himself was absent from the hearing after refusing to appear in person or by video from the Boulder County Jail on Wednesday, citing illness.
But Wolf’s attorney Beth Kelley noted Wolf had told another deputy he simply would not appear in court, and Mulvahill noted it was the third time Wolf had refused to appear for a hearing.
Due to the level of the charges and “behavioral issues” at the jail, Boulder Deputy District Attorney Ryan Day asked that Wolf be transferred to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo.
But Kelley asked that Wolf instead undergo restoration efforts at the Boulder County Jail due to a significant wait time for transfers to the state hospital amid the pandemic.
“My concern is we would essentially be in a holding pattern for months,” Kelley said.
Mulvahill said he would leave the decision on where Wolf should be treated up to doctors.
“We’ll let the professionals figure it out,” Mulvahill said.
Wolf pleaded not guilty to the charges back in February 2020, but a change in attorneys, the coronavirus pandemic and other delays have continually pushed back the trial date for the case, which is now more than two years old.
According to an arrest affidavit, Lynch was reported missing July 30, 2019, by his son after Lynch failed to show up at his girlfriend’s house on the previous Sunday.
Lynch was a general contractor and had been working on a vacant house on Camino Bosque in Fourmile Canyon, so the property owners went to see if Lynch was there. The owners arrived and found Wolf, who they did not know, sitting in Lynch’s car in the garage.
The property owner confronted Wolf, who said he was there to clean before saying the police were after him. The homeowner said she had not hired anyone to work on the house other than Lynch, and called the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office.
When deputies arrived, they found Wolf carrying shovels in a trash bag, according to the affidavit. Wolf saw the deputies and ran into the garage, but the two deputies were able to handcuff him.
Deputies searched Lynch’s car and found Lynch’s body wrapped in plastic in the trunk of the vehicle.
The coroner’s office ruled the cause of Lynch’s death was “homicidal violence by unspecified means.” While the report could not specify any exact injuries Lynch sustained, due in part to decomposition of the body, a forensic pathologist ruled the manner of death a homicide.
Prosecutors said Wolf had been trying to elude police following a traffic stop two days before being found with the body, broke into the home in the hopes of finding fuel for his car, and killed Lynch upon finding him in the house.
Wolf also has been charged with attempted first-degree murder and second-degree assault after reportedly assaulting an inmate at the jail.
That case also remains on hold.
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