Inset: Ricky Lee Roybal-Smith (Denver Police Department). Background: The Walmart Supercenter where Roybal-Smith threatened customers in June 2022 in Englewood, Colo. (Google Maps).
A Colorado man has amassed four murder charges during the span of two separate parole stints, Mile High State authorities say.
As of last year, Ricky Lee Roybal-Smith, 38, stood accused of three counts of murder in the first degree, according to police and prosecutors in Denver and the adjacent large city of Aurora. The Denver-area killings occurred within hours of one another during a crime spree last summer, law enforcement says.
As of late last week, the defendant is facing a fourth charge of second-degree murder out of Arapahoe County, prosecutors announced. The fourth homicide charge dates back to 2022.
During the early morning hours on June 29, 2025, Jesse Shafer, 27, and Scott Davenport, 61, were stabbed to death in Aurora. The victims were attacked and left to die on Moline Street and Peoria Street, respectively, police said. Both men were homeless at the time.
Shafer was killed at around 1:45 a.m. on the day in question — stabbed some 15 times, according to the Adams County Coroner's Office. Within the hour, Davenport was stabbed roughly 90 times in the back.
Later that same day, Roybal-Smith was arrested for a hit-and-run involving two pedestrians near the intersection of Galapago Street and West 9th Avenue in Denver. He was booked in jail around 11 p.m.
By 2 a.m. the next morning, the defendant's cellmate, Vincent Chacon, 36, was found laying face down and dead in the cell.
Initial assessments suggested the victim died while choking on an apple, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Denver-based NBC affiliate KUSA. Those claims were sourced to Roybal-Smith who allegedly told a deputy Chacon was choking on an apple and needed help. In fact, the deceased man was found lying on top of an apple with a bite taken out of it and a piece of apple was removed from Chacon's throat during an autopsy, according to the affidavit.
Later, however, it was determined Chacon — who was in jail awaiting release on a traffic violation — died as a result of "asphyxia due to external compression of the neck" or strangulation, according to the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner.
Chacon's death prompted public outrage over jail policies. The victim's family questioned why the two men were ever detained together — and why the victim was still being detained in the first place.
"We received a text from Denver County Saturday saying they had released him," Chacon's mother told Denver-based Fox affiliate KDVR. "Monday morning, they said they didn't have him there. Then Tuesday morning, the coroner called to tell me he had passed."
Now, more official missteps are being alleged in the aftermath of Roybal-Smith being charged with murder yet again.
On June 22, 2022, Meg Eberhart, whose age is unknown, was found unconscious at a light rail station in Englewood, a small city on the far southern edge of the Denver metro area. She was taken to a hospital and died several days later.
The victim was found after she left her rideshare vehicle to use the restroom around 3 a.m. that night, according to the Englewood Herald. The woman's Lyft driver told police he heard her scream and that a man outside "knocked her out," so he activated an emergency alert.
The Englewood Police Department looked to Roybal-Smith as its primary suspect, alleging he ran from the scene of the crime. But Arapahoe County prosecutors demurred because Eberhart's cause of death was long ruled "undetermined."
On Feb. 25, prosecutors charged the defendant for Eberhart's death. The cause of death determination does not appear to have changed, but prosecutors now believe the woman's death was a crime.
"The Englewood Police Department has worked tirelessly for the past three years to seek answers and closure in this complex case," the department said in a statement released after the charges were filed. "This outcome reflects the unwavering dedication of our entire Detectives Bureau, who committed countless hours to carefully building a thorough case."
As it turned out, Roybal-Smith was on parole at the time Eberhart was killed, according to an investigative analysis by KUSA.
For years, the Colorado Department of Corrections ranked the on-again, off-again inmate as a "very high" risk toward recidivism. Then, in 2022, he was categorized as a "moderate risk."
Though the defendant waited years to be charged in the Eberhart case, he was quickly charged for another crime around the same time.
The day before the woman was attacked, Roybal-Smith went berserk at a nearby Walmart Supercenter in Englewood. The outburst was so severe that he was charged with threatening customers at the big-box store and received a four-year prison sentence.
But he never served all four years. The defendant was eligible for parole in 2025 — his "moderate risk" designation still intact. He was subsequently granted parole in January of last year — and then allegedly went on to kill three more people.
Roybal-Smith has been paroled four times since 2012.
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