LOVELAND, Colo. — A woman in Loveland twice asked a judge to make her ex-boyfriend give up his guns and stay away from her home before he killed her and her 16-year-old daughter.
Both times, a court denied a permanent protection order.
Police say Javier Acevedo, 49, shot and killed Meadow Sinner and her mom, Lindsay Daum, about a month after a court denied the permanent protection order a second time.
On Sept. 1, 2021, Daum filed a petition for a protection order against Acevedo in a Larimer County Court. Her daughter, Sinner, was listed as a protected person. A temporary protection order was issued on Sept. 1 and was vacated on Sept. 28, when the court denied a permanent protection order, Loveland police said.
In her petition, Daum wrote Acevedo was violent toward her and her kids. She also asked the court to order Acevedo to not possess and/or purchase a firearm and to relinquish any guns.
She filed a second request for a protection order in June 2022 against Acevedo. In this request, she claimed Acevedo threatened to kill her.
A temporary protection order was issued on June 16 and vacated on June 28, when the court denied a permanent protection order a second time, Loveland police said.
On July 26, police said, they got a call from a concerned citizen who said Acevedo had made a statement to the caller about killing his wife. Officers investigated and "did not have probable cause for any criminal violations," the department said.
Two days later, police said, Acevedo killed Daum and her daughter.
"It is troublesome that there were two separate requests to get a protection order and apparently neither ever got to the permanent protection order stage," 9NEWS Legal Expert Scott Robinson said.
Daum's attempts to force Acevedo to give up his guns didn't work. Someone else in Denver County, though, did get court orders to take his firearms away months before the murders.
Robinson said those orders meant Acevedo was not supposed to have a gun that day.
Loveland police say Acevedo legally purchased the gun he used in the murders in March 2021. A Denver County court issued multiple orders requiring him to give up his guns after he purchased that shotgun.
According to Robinson, Acevedo was violating a court order last week by having that weapon.
"There is no guarantee that when a person has a protection order against them that they are going to comply with the protective order," Robinson said.
In October 2021, Acevedo was arrested and accused of sexually assaulting a minor. In November 2021, the district attorney's office in Larimer County requested a criminal no contact order with the juvenile victims of the case and their residence. The court granted that order on Nov. 4.
Acevedo was not allowed to be near the home in Loveland. There was no requirement that Acevedo relinquish any guns in that case.
"The nature of the criminal charges did not involve weapons or allegations of domestic violence, which would have required forfeiture of weapons," District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin said. "Had any such reports been made to our office, we would have taken appropriate and immediate action."
Investigators believe after shooting Sinner and Daum, Acevedo took his own life in Erie, about 30 miles south of the shooting scene.
Police said along with Sinner, there were four other children, ranging in age from 2 to 14 years old, in the home at the time of the shooting. None of them were physically injured.
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