GREELEY — A Greeley judge found the man accused of murdering two Greeley residents more than a year ago competent to stand trial after two evaluations failed to provide any evidence to the contrary.
Attorneys for Kevin Dean Eastman filed a motion on Dec. 4 claiming Eastman was not competent to proceed with his criminal trial. Eastman was originally scheduled to be arraigned on formal charges in the murders of Scott Sessions and Heather Frank on Dec. 7.
Weld District Court Judge Marcelo Kopcow, however, ordered an evaluation. Then at a hearing on Jan 25 Eastman’s attorney asked for a second opinion by a private evaluator. There was no indication given as to why a second opinion was warranted, but Complete Colorado learned from those close to the trial that the first evaluation, done by the state, did not support incompetency.
Eastman will now appear at 10 a.m. April 1 for an arraignment hearing. Kopcow told attorneys on both sides that a trial start date will be set that day and that they should have an idea how much time they will need for the trial and various pretrial issues such as motion hearings, among other things.
Eastman has been held in the Weld County jail since February of 2020 on multiple charges in the deaths of Sessions, a Greeley jazz musician, and a woman Sessions appears to have been dating.
During a preliminary hearing in October, prosecutors called the murder of Sessions an “ambush,” “a lie-in-wait” style murder and the subsequent murder of Frank as the need for Eastman to silence the only witness to Sessions’ murder.
Kopcow held Eastman over for trial on seven felony counts, including 1st degree murder.
Complete Colorado has been following this case since the beginning. Links to all of Complete Colorado’s coverage on this case can be found by clicking here.
