Deborah De Pinto: Killing, Trial, and Sentence

Deborah De Pinto, a 44-year-old chef and mother of two, was strangled to death by her husband, Scott Beaumont Jones, on June 18, 2018, inside the office of the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park in north Boulder, Colorado. The killing of Deborah De Pinto was captured on the park’s surveillance system, and Jones was convicted of second-degree murder and child abuse in December 2019. He was sentenced in March 2020 to 48 years in prison, the maximum allowed.¹

Who Deborah De Pinto Was

Born December 15, 1973, De Pinto grew up in a family that ran a restaurant and spent her career in kitchens, working for more than a decade as a chef de cuisine in Campus Dining Services at the University of Colorado Boulder.² She and Jones had two children together, ages 11 and 13 when she was killed. At the time of her death the family was staying temporarily in a travel trailer at the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park at 4475 North Broadway.³

De Pinto had been planning to leave the marriage. In a Facebook message to a friend she wrote, “I have been trying to find the right time and situation to make it peaceful… He’s desperate to hold on, that’s what makes him unpredictable.”⁴

The Night of June 18, 2018

Surveillance cameras at the mobile home park office recorded De Pinto and Jones entering the building while arguing and gesturing angrily. They moved off camera into a laundry area, but the system’s audio kept recording. On the tape, De Pinto tells Jones: “You can’t force me to love you anymore… You make me feel terrible, get away from the door and let me leave.”⁵

About 20 seconds later she screamed twice. A physical struggle followed that lasted roughly one minute and 18 seconds. A man’s voice said “You’re done.” A woman yelled “Help me!” A man said “It’s over.” Investigators noted thumping sounds on the recording that grew weaker until they stopped.⁶⁷

Roughly 40 minutes after the struggle, cameras recorded Jones pacing and saying “Oh my God.” Prosecutors said he sat with De Pinto’s body for about 45 minutes, then brought his 10-year-old son into the room before calling 911.¹ De Pinto was found unconscious and not breathing and was pronounced dead at Boulder Community Health Foothills Hospital.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Daniel Lingamfelter ruled the cause of death homicidal asphyxiation by strangulation, with a possible smothering element. He documented bleeding in her neck muscles, burst blood vessels in her eyes and lips consistent with strangulation, and injuries to her tongue and mouth suggesting smothering.⁸

What Jones Told Police

Jones, then 47, first told detectives that De Pinto had been feeling ill for several days. When they showed him the surveillance footage he became defensive and said it “didn’t prove anything.” After his arrest he told investigators he “didn’t mean to do it,” said she had died of “asphyxiation,” and cited anger over a suspected affair and a disagreement about a CrossFit class.⁹⁵

Jones was initially charged with second-degree murder. After investigators recovered the strangulation audio, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty moved to upgrade the charge to first-degree murder, a Class 1 felony carrying mandatory life without parole.¹⁰

Threats Before the Killing

Several friends testified that Jones had threatened De Pinto in the months before her death, as she considered leaving him. Mark Rose said Jones told him it “wouldn’t happen, he wouldn’t let it happen,” and that his tone and body language conveyed he meant he would kill her. Heather Pellouchoud testified Jones said, “Then I’ll whack her over the head and put her in the ground.” Ryan Worley testified that about a week before the killing, Jones said he “had friends that owed him favors and could have her taken out.”⁴

Prosecutors also introduced text messages in which Jones threatened to take the children out of state and wrote, “I am a man with nothing left to lose except my life.”¹¹

The Trial and the Premeditation Question

The trial opened in Boulder District Court in December 2019 before Judge Bruce Langer. Both sides agreed Jones had strangled his wife. The fight was over whether the killing was premeditated, which would make it first-degree murder, or impulsive, which would reduce it.¹²

Deputy District Attorney Michael Petrash used a timer during closing arguments to demonstrate the one-minute-and-18-second length of the strangulation, arguing Jones had time to stop and chose not to. Deputy District Attorney Adam Kendall pointed to the earlier threats, texts, jail calls, and letters as evidence of deliberation.⁶

The defense conceded the killing but called it “hasty, impulsive and reckless.” Defense attorney April Coleman argued Jones would not have chosen to commit a planned murder in a place “surrounded by video cameras, where a person could walk in at any minute, and his children were waiting outside.” The defense called no witnesses, and Jones did not testify.¹²¹³

Verdict and Sentence

On December 18, 2019, after roughly 10 hours of deliberation over two days, the jury acquitted Jones of first-degree murder and found him guilty of second-degree murder and one count of child abuse for bringing his young son into the room to see his dead mother. One juror later said 11 of the 12 had favored a first-degree conviction, with a single holdout blocking a unanimous verdict on that charge.¹²

Judge Langer sentenced Jones on March 9, 2020, to 48 years in prison for second-degree murder, the statutory maximum, plus a concurrent one-year jail term for child abuse. Langer said, “Viewing the totality of the circumstances, the court concludes it is hard to conceive of a more aggravated second-degree murder… It’s hard to imagine a case where a maximum sentence is any more justified.” He called Jones’s decision to bring his son into the room “unfathomable” and an attempt to use the child as a prop.¹

At sentencing, prosecutors played jailhouse phone calls in which Jones claimed he “took really good care of her” and said he “should’ve gone temporary insanity in that room.”¹⁴ Letters from De Pinto’s family, read in court, described her as a woman who “lived and died for her children” and said the children “continue to struggle to trust, to love, and to just be a kid.” Langer granted a motion barring Jones from any contact with the two children, who are being raised by family out of state.¹

1
Colorado Daily. Scott Jones Sentenced to 48 Years in Prison in Boulder County Murder Case
2
University of Colorado Boulder. Deborah DePinto Will Be Missed
3
Daily Camera. Boulder County Woman Death Mysterious
4
Colorado Daily. Testimony in North Boulder Murder Trial Continues Today
5
Wichita Eagle. Man Charged in Wife’s Strangulation Death Caught on Surveillance
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Daily Camera. Attorneys Set to Make Closing Arguments in North Boulder Murder Trial
7
Daily Camera. Trial in North Boulder Trailer Park Murder Case Set to Begin
8
Daily Camera. Testimony in North Boulder Murder Trial Continues Today
9
WDSU. Man Charged With Wife’s Murder After Prosecutors Say Her Death Was Caught on Tape
10
Denver Post. Boulder Murder Charge Strangulation
11
Daily Camera. Testimony Continues Today in North Boulder Murder Trial
12
Daily Camera. Jury to Continue Deliberations in North Boulder Murder Trial
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Daily Camera. Testimony in North Boulder Murder Trial Expected to Conclude Today
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Daily Camera. Scott Jones Set for Sentencing in Boulder Murder Case Monday