State crime investigators collected more than 1,000 pieces of evidence, some dating back to 1976, as part of a complete cleanup of the evidence storage room at the Costilla County Sheriff’s Department, District Attorney Anne Kelly told a room full of San Luis Valley county commissioners on Monday.
Kelly said 30 agents from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation spent 12 hours sorting through all the files in the evidence storage room last Thursday, Sept. 18.
“We found that evidence was mislabeled, or disorganized, compromised. So the task ahead of sorting through all of this is going to be daunting,” she said.
The CBI involvement follows Kelly sounding alarm bells in July to Costilla County Commissioners about the operations of the sheriff’s department, and state Attorney General Phil Weiser then launching an investigation in August.
The issue of evidence storage in the Costilla County sheriff’s office came to a head when Kelly was sanctioned in a homicide case due to evidence in the case being lost and the judge faulting Kelly for it.
“The message from that judge was very loud and clear, which was one of the reasons why we decided to do what we did last week which was to take every single physical piece of evidence from the sheriff’s office so that we can figure out where it is, what it is, label it, and this is an effort to assist the Costilla County Sheriffs to kind of get a clean slate.”
Kelly said it’s likely most of the evidence CBI agents collected will be destroyed. “In other words, not needed. And so what we’re doing is cleaning up all of that so that you will be left with evidence that truly needs to be preserved, which will fit in what you have right now (for evidence storage).”
Kelly credited Costilla County Commissioners for their support. “We’ve been looking at the sheriff’s office for about a year to try to figure out what we can do and to figure out the problems. And I brought those problems to you and you were absolutely gracious in allowing me to talk very openly and very candidly about what I was seeing.”
Alamosa Citizen YouTube: Watch the July meeting with Costilla County Commissioners to hear DA Kelly lay out her concerns with the sheriff’s department.
Funding the DA’s office
The 12th Judicial District Attorney’s office serves the six counties in the San Luis Valley and is funded through annual appropriations based on population size of each county. Kelly was appearing before the San Luis Valley commissioners group, which meets quarterly to address common issues across the Valley, to present the DA office’s proposed 2026 budget of $1.83 million.
Here is a breakdown of the proposed 2026 funding by county:
Alamosa County: $654,371
Conejos County: $294,732
Costilla County: $142,943
Mineral County: $36,758
Rio Grande County: $440,703
Saguache County: $262,652
It was during her budget presentation that the district attorney got into the Costilla County sheriff’s office investigation and those costs, as well the Barry Morphew indictment and expenses tied to that case.
Kelly also talked about the costs associated with the transformation of the old Alamosa State Bank building at Main Street and State Avenue into the new headquarters for the district attorney’s office. An unveiling of that remodel is scheduled for Oct. 22.
Alamosa State Bank turned over the building to Alamosa County for use by the DA’s office. With remodeling costs, there remains around $1.3 million in debt that the DA budget will service through its appropriations from the counties.