Bressler found guilty of conspiracy, but not murder

Louis Bressler conspired to kill a fellow Iraq War veteran, but evidence didn't prove he pulled the trigger, an El Paso County jury decided Wednesday.

Bressler, 25, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in the Dec. 1, 2007, shooting death of Spc. Kevin Shields.

After about 22 hours of deliberation, the jury could not find enough evidence to convict the former Fort Carson soldier of first-degree murder or aggravated robbery.

Bressler slightly bowed his head as the verdicts were read in 4th Judicial District Judge Theresa Cisneros' courtroom, but otherwise he showed no emotion.

Shields' mother, Debra Shields, buried her head in her boyfriend's shoulder and began weeping, still clutching her son's dog tags. His widow, Svetlana Shields and his grandparents, Madlyn and Ivan Shields, were also in the courtroom Wednesday - as they were throughout the two-week trial.

"I just was hoping we'd get a guilty verdict so he could be at peace," Debra Shields said. "We're really disappointed with this verdict. I don't believe it was right."

Prosecutors presented evidence that Shields, celebrating his 24th birthday that night, was drinking heavily at downtown bars with Bressler and co-defendants Bruce Bastien Jr. and Kenneth Eastridge.

Bressler and Shields fought after leaving the bar, with Shields getting the better of him, Eastridge testified. He told jurors he handed Bressler the gun and that Bressler shot Shields - twice in the head and once in the groin. Shields' body was found where he was shot: In a residential neighborhood on 16th Street on the city's west side.

The men later burned their clothes and tossed the .38-caliber revolver - registered to Bressler's wife - off a bridge near Interstate 25 and Woodmen Road, Eastridge testified.

Eastridge pleaded guilty to accessory and was previously sentenced to 10 years in prison. Bastien pleaded guilty to accessory in Shields' homicide and conspiracy to commit murder in the August 2007 robbery and shooting death of Pfc. Robert James. Bastien was sentenced to 60 years in prison. He was supposed to testify against Bressler but refused.

"We're disappointed," said Deputy District Attorney Jack Roth. "We thought we proved our case. The ones we really feel bad for are Kevin's family. He didn't deserve to be left to die on that cold December morning."

Defense attorney Ed Farry said the verdicts didn't surprise him.

"It was the correct and right verdict," Farry said, noting the prosecution's two main witnesses were not believable.

"This is a triumph for the jury system in Colorado," he said.

Roth said he has not decided whether to refile the first-degree murder charges against Bastien in the Shields and James homicides, which he could do because Bastien broke the deal by refusing to testify. Bastien was also supposed to testify in the James trial.

Family members did not blame prosecutors.

"The prosecutors did a great job," said Madlyn Shields. "The evidence was all there. I can't believe the jury came back with the decision it did."

Said Debra Shields: "I feel like I lost him all over again."

The attorneys are set to meet with Cisneros Dec. 1 to schedule a sentencing date. That is also the day Bressler's trial on a first-degree murder charge in James' homicide is set to begin. Bressler faces 16 to 48 years in prison.

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Contact the writer: dennis.huspeni@gazette.com or 636-0110.