Devol murder trial pushed to Aug. 7

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

The trial for a man accused of killing his sister and her boyfriend in rural Douglas County has been rescheduled to start in August.

Casey Devol was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty in September and was slated for a jury trial starting June 12.

Devol’s trial was reset to begin Aug. 7, according to the state judicial branch website.

A recording captured audio of the incident where Devol allegedly committed the murders, according to prosecutors.

“What we have are recorded statements of the murder itself which were made by one of the victims,” Andrew Steers, a chief deputy district attorney, has said.

The existence of the recorder was not known, Steers said, until the autopsy in the case that left Jessica Mitchell, 32, and Bryan Todd Gray, 34, dead in the Franktown area. They were discovered in February 2022 in a garage adjacent to a house they lived in on Russellville Road. Mitchell was Devol’s sister.

Authorities don’t know why someone chose to record the inter- action, Steers said during a March 22 hearing in Douglas County District Court.

The recording captured the events leading up to the murder:

Three people appeared to be having a dinner and at one point talked about a birthday gift, Steers said. At some point, the man authorities say is Devol leaves and returns and kills the other two people and a dog.

Mitchell was found with a “digital recorder device,” according to her autopsy report.

A coworker of Gray’s discovered him and Mitchell in the Russellville Road garage at about 1:30 p.m. Feb. 8, 2022.

Devol was found and arrested at a hotel in Salina, Kansas, on Feb. 9, 2022. He complied when officers attempted to place him in custody, according to testimony at the hearing.

Autopsy results show the victims had bruising and shallow injuries and had been shot by two different firearms.

The report, released by the Douglas County Coroner’s Office, shows both victims also had meth, alcohol and marijuana in their systems. In addition to the toxicology reports, notes were made in both autopsies that each had a history of methamphetamine use.

Deputies discovered security footage for the home that showed someone entering the garage carrying “multiple handguns and a long gun.” After a tip from a friend of the family, investigators alleged that Devol is the person in the video.