Fourmile Canyon murder defendant still awaiting second evaluation
Sep. 16—The man accused in a 2019 Fourmile Canyon murder is still awaiting a second evaluation of his competency to stand trial.
Stephen Christopher Wolf, 28, is charged with first-degree murder after deliberation, felony murder, first-degree burglary, second-degree burglary, tampering with a deceased human body, vehicular eluding and tampering with physical evidence in the death of Jeffrey Michael Lynch, 57.
Wolf was declared incompetent to proceed in last year, and ordered to undergo restoration efforts at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo. After a delay, Wolf was transported to the state hospital in June.
In August, a judge id did not reveal the results of the evaluation but did say Wolf was back at the Boulder County Jail, and Wolf's attorneys Mary Claire Mulligan and Beth Kelley asked for a second evaluation.
At a hearing Friday, Boulder District Judge Patrick Butler said the second evaluator was asking for more time to complete a report.
Wolf, who for the second hearing in a row refused to appear for the hearing in person or by video, is now set for a review hearing on Oct. 31.
He remains in custody without bond.
According to an arrest affidavit, Lynch was reported missing July 30, 2019, after he failed to show up at his girlfriend's house on the previous Sunday.
Lynch was a general contractor and had been working on a vacant house on Camino Bosque in Fourmile Canyon, so the property owners went to see if Lynch was there. The owners arrived and found Wolf, who they did not know, sitting in Lynch's car in the garage.
The property owner confronted Wolf, who said he was there to clean before saying the police were after him. The homeowner said she had not hired anyone to work on the house other than Lynch, and called the Boulder County Sheriff's Office.
When deputies arrived, they found Wolf carrying shovels in a trash bag, according to the affidavit. Wolf saw the deputies and ran into the garage, but the two deputies were able to handcuff him.
Deputies searched Lynch's car and found his body wrapped in plastic in the trunk of the vehicle.
The coroner's office ruled the cause of Lynch's death was "homicidal violence by unspecified means." While the report could not specify any exact injuries Lynch sustained, due in part to decomposition of the body, a forensic pathologist ruled the manner of death a homicide.
Prosecutors said Wolf, who had been trying to elude police following a traffic stop two days before being found with the body, broke into the home in the hopes of finding fuel for his car, and killed Lynch upon finding him in the house.
Wolf also has been charged with attempted first-degree murder and second-degree assault after reportedly assaulting an inmate at the jail.
