Rhonda Maloney Murder: Death Sentence Overturned, Life Without Parole

Rhonda Maloney was a 25-year-old cocktail waitress kidnapped, raped, and murdered in Colorado on February 12, 1994. Her killer, Robert Harlan, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1995. A decade later, the Colorado Supreme Court threw out the death sentence after learning that jurors had brought Bibles into the deliberation room and read passages calling for capital punishment. Harlan was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and remains in Colorado custody.¹

The Night of February 12, 1994

Maloney worked at Harrah’s Casino in Central City and lived in Adams County with her husband, Kerry Maloney. She finished her shift around 2:00 a.m. and rode a shuttle to her car at the Golden bus station parking lot, arriving between 3:00 and 3:30 a.m.² Robert Harlan, then 29, ran her car off the road and abducted her. Maloney later told a witness that Harlan raped her at gunpoint for roughly two hours.³

Around 5:45 a.m., 31-year-old Jaquie Creazzo was driving east on Interstate 76 near the I-25 interchange when she saw two vehicles stopped on the shoulder. She pulled over to check for an accident. Maloney ran to Creazzo’s car, got in, and told her a man had raped her and was going to kill her.⁴

Creazzo tried to reach the Thornton Police Department. Harlan chased them, pulled alongside, and fired three times, hitting Creazzo in the knee, the mouth, and the back. A bullet lodged in her spine. She lost control of the car, which crossed the median and came to rest on the front lawn of the police department.⁵ Creazzo was left paralyzed from the chest down.⁴

Harlan pulled Maloney from Creazzo’s car, threatened to kill Creazzo if she told anyone what had happened, and drove away with Maloney.

Arrest, Charges, and Conviction

Police arrested Harlan on February 15, 1994. Maloney’s body was found on February 19, seven days after her disappearance, under a bridge.⁶² An autopsy found she had been killed by a gunshot wound to the head and had suffered skull fractures, facial fractures, and injuries consistent with sexual assault.⁴

Harlan was tried in the Seventeenth Judicial District of Colorado on a sweeping indictment: first-degree murder after deliberation, felony murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder for the shooting of Creazzo, two counts of second-degree kidnapping, and assault. On June 20, 1995, the jury found him guilty on every count. Jurors also found that he had used a deadly weapon during the attempted murders and had robbed and sexually assaulted Maloney during the kidnapping.⁴

The 1995 Death Sentence

The penalty phase followed the guilty verdict, and the jury returned a unanimous decision imposing death. The trial court added three consecutive 48-year sentences for the attempted murder and kidnapping counts.⁴ Harlan’s father was a Denver detective, a detail that drew press attention at the time.¹

In March 2000, the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and death sentence in People v. Harlan, 999 P.2d 128, dissolved the stay of execution, and sent the case back to the trial court to set a date for Harlan to be put to death.⁴

Why the Death Sentence Was Overturned

About three months after the 1995 sentencing, a defense investigator named Raelee Knapp interviewed five jurors and learned that several had consulted Bibles while deciding whether Harlan should live or die.⁷

On the evening of Friday, June 30, 1995, while sequestered in a hotel during the penalty phase, several jurors searched their personal Bibles for passages on capital punishment and the duty to obey civil authorities. They wrote down the locations of specific verses. The next morning, two jurors brought Bibles, a Bible index, and handwritten notes into the jury room. They shared the passages with other jurors, including Leviticus 24:20-21 (“Fracture for fracture, eye for eye… whoever kills a man shall be put to death”) and Romans 13:1, which instructs obedience to governing authorities. Those materials were discussed before the jury reached its unanimous death verdict later that Saturday.⁷

Throughout the trial, jurors had been instructed to base their decision solely on courtroom evidence and the judge’s legal instructions. The defense argued they had gone outside the law. Kathleen Lord, the chief appellate deputy public defender, said the jurors had sought “God’s position on capital punishment.”⁸

On March 28, 2005, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled 3-2 to overturn the death sentence.⁹ Applying an objective test, the court asked whether a reasonable possibility existed that the outside material would have influenced a typical juror against the defendant. Because the biblical passages specifically commanded death for murder, the majority found that possibility present and concluded it could no longer hold the sentence free from the influence of “passion, prejudice, or any other arbitrary factor,” as Colorado law required.⁷

The court drew a line between jurors privately reflecting on their own religious beliefs, which is allowed, and bringing a written religious text into the deliberation room as an authoritative source. The Bible, the majority wrote, carried “the ring of authority” and functioned as extraneous material jurors were not entitled to consider.⁶ Because a Colorado death sentence required unanimity, the passages could have swayed even one juror who might otherwise have voted for life.⁹

Adams County District Attorney Don Quick disagreed with the ruling. “I agree with the jury that he deserves the death sentence,” he said, and his office petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.¹⁰ The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal.¹¹

Life Without Parole

With the death sentence vacated and no further appeals available, Adams County District Judge Scott Crabtree resentenced Harlan to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Crabtree told the courtroom he had no choice: “I have no discretion here.”¹²

Former Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant, who originally prosecuted the case, called the outcome “a damn shame” and said a life sentence was “not what the citizens of Adams County” wanted. Kathleen Lord, for the defense, said the state’s high court had it right: “An eye for an eye is not the law of Colorado.”¹²

Where Things Stand

Robert Harlan remains in Colorado state prison, serving life without the possibility of parole.¹

Jaquie Creazzo, the driver who stopped to help, was widely called a hero, though she rejected the label. Kerry Maloney credited her with making it possible to know what happened to his wife: “She is a real hero, and without her, we never would have known what happened to Rhonda.”⁵ In a 2012 interview, Creazzo said she still thinks about that night constantly. “I was a human being who did what was necessary. I didn’t save her. I feel like I let her down. In that part, I don’t feel like a hero.” She recalled being certain she was going to die, and said her only thought was making sure police knew Maloney was still out there and still needed help.¹³

1
Law Week Colorado. Detective’s Son Sentenced to Death in 1995 for Rape and Murder, Verdict Later Overturned for Improper Jury Conduct
2
vLex. People v. Harlan
3
Deseret News. Body May Be That of Colorado Kidnap Victim
4
FindLaw. People v. Harlan, 999 P.2d 128
5
Los Angeles Times. Good Samaritan Shot Trying to Help Kidnap Victim
6
NBC News. Jury’s Bible Use Overturns Death Sentence
7
FindLaw. People v. Harlan, 109 P.3d 616
8
Summit Daily. Bible Use by Jurors at Center of Colorado Death Penalty Challenge
9
CBS News. Jury’s Bible Use Nixes Sentence
10
Deseret News. Prosecutors Want Court to Overturn Life Sentence
11
Christian Science Monitor. Bible Use by Jurors at Center of Death Penalty Challenge
12
Denver Post. Life Sentence for Harlan
13
Denver Post. Two Colorado Women Who Risked Their Lives for Strangers Ended Up Paralyzed