Real Kids Preschool students, from left, SedikMote, 4, Dawenise Burks, 3, and Nyimah Bryant, 2, each pick outa book to take home at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library in Denver on Friday as part of acelebration of Black HistoryMonth. Denver singer Hazel Miller joined the local preschool and kindergartenchildren to read several books and sing a few songs. Clifford the Big Red Dog andWinnie the Poohwere alsothere to entertain the kids. Photos by Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post

GOING BYTHE BOOKS

By Jordan SteffenThe Denver Post

castle rock » Christopher Wells,the man accused of hiring a man to killhis estranged wife, pleaded not guiltyFriday in a Douglas County court, alongwith two other defendants in the case.

Wells, 49, who appeared in court un-restrained and dressed in khakis and ablack sports jacket, is accused of hiringformer associates at a Colorado Springscar dealership to kill his wife — 39-

year-old Amara Wells — while he wasincarcerated for domestic violence-re-lated charges.

The bodies of Amara Wells and BobRafferty, 49, were found in the Raffertyfamily home Feb. 23, 2011.

Wells and her daughter had beenstaying at the Rafferty home southwestof Castle Rock.

Matthew Plake, 27, wearing an orangejail jumpsuit, and Micah Woody, 30,dressed in a yellow jumpsuit, were inrestraints as they entered their not-

guilty pleas. The three are charged withmurder and numerous other charges inthe case.

Wells was the only defendant who didnot look at the victims’ family memberswho were in attendance.

On Jan. 31, the Douglas County Dis-trict Attorney’s office announced thatprosecutors will seek the death penaltyagainst Josiah Sher, 27, the fourth maninvolved in the alleged murder-for-hireplot.

Authorities played videotaped con-

fessions of Plake, Woody and Sher at apreliminary hearing.

Sher said he was offered $20,000 —$5,000 each for killing Rafferty and hiswife, Tamara Rafferty, and $10,000 forkilling Amara Wells.

Sher never received the money.Tamara Rafferty, who is Christopher

Wells’ sister, was out of the state whenthe killings happened.

Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794or jsteffen@denverpost.com

Three in Douglas murder-for-hire case plead not guilty

Online: Watch a video andsee a slide show of thereadings. »denverpost.com

Saniah Spears, 4, right, Sedik,center, and Dawenise giveHazel Miller a thank-you hugafter the reading at the Blair-Caldwell library Fridaymorn-ing. The Volunteers of Americasponsored the “I Love to Read”event at the library Friday.

pected to cost about $1.2 million, includethe Chambers Family Fund; Comcast;Delta Dental; the El Pomar Foundation;Encana; Joseph Henry Edmondson; theHistory Colorado Center; Microsoft;The Denver Foundation; Ken and DebbieTuchman; and Xerox.

“This isn’t an attempt to push a Demo-cratic agenda or a Republican agenda.It’s about a Colorado agenda,” Maffeisaid. “This also isn’t about raising taxesor cutting taxes.”

Critics on the right have discountedthat talk, saying TBD Colorado is politi-cal cover for a public-information cam-paign to push the public toward approv-ing a tax increase.

There were no tax increase proposalsfloated before the 100-plus gathered Fri-day, but those in attendance did weigh inon some spending priorities.

Asked to prioritize Colorado’s fundingneeds, 77 percent ranked K-12 educationNo. 1, with health care coming in at a dis-tant second at 8 percent, transportationat 7 percent and higher education at 6percent. Only 1 percent chose correc-tions as the top funding priority.

As the audience split into discussiongroups, some tables reported back laterthat they wanted to see more concretesolutions proposed. Another table waseven more frank, telling organizers notto be so shy in talking about taxes.

“As much as humanly possible, I thinkwe want to stay away from some of thereally divisive issues — more taxes orless taxes or this is too conservative ortoo liberal,” Hickenlooper said. “But inthe end, we are hoping we’ll end up withpriorities.”

Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626or thoover@denverpost.com

«FROM 1B

egregious situation,” boardmembers are concerned the en-gineers did not notify the boardof their concerns about thework of Gary Howell, who engi-neered the school for theNeenan Co.

“We are just asking for the re-spondents’ side of the story,”she said.

Studer was hired by theMeeker school board after thefirst small signs of problems atthe school.

He repeatedly pressed for afull outside review, which How-ell opposed.

SCI’s report found the build-ing at risk of collapse in a fiercewindstorm, among other seri-ous problems.

In a written response toDORA, Studer noted that he didnot have enough information toreport Howell, in part becauseHowell did not provide ade-quate information to him. Hesaid he assumed SCI wouldmake any required notifica-tions to the board.

“I felt that I was providing myservices in an ‘ethical’ mannerduring my engagement with theschool district and had greathopes of a good result,” Studerwrote.

Bumgarner and Muir citedNeenan’s protracted delays inproviding information as a fac-tor in their conclusion that theydid not have enough informa-tion to notify the board.

“We gave the matter appro-priate consideration and pro-fessional respect continuouslythroughout the duration of ourengagement,” they wrote.

Jim West, the project manag-er for the Meeker district,praised the two firms.

“Had it not been for Mr. Stud-er, we would have never beenalerted that we had problems,”he said. “And if it wasn’t for SCI,we never would have had thoseproblems validated.”

Andy Boian, a spokesman forNeenan, said the companyturned over all documents as itobtained information and thatSCI never asked for documentsbefore issuing its review of theschool.

The licensing board also hasopened an investigation intoThomas Nevin and AndrewGarner, Terracon Consultantsengineers who conducted asoils report at Meeker. Nevinhad an expired license at thetime, the complaint says.

An outside review found thereport had misclassified soilcharacteristics.

The state has not received re-sponses from the engineers,and Terracon did not respondto requests for comment.

Eric Gorski: 303-954-1971or egorski@denverpost.com

«FROM 1B

INITIATIVE:

Critics call planpolitical coverfor tax increase

REVIEW:

Engineersdefendedtheir work

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