DENVER — More than a year before Denver Police say a parolee named Vinchenzo Moscoso stabbed and killed two strangers in northwest Denver in 2023, Moscoso turned up outside a home on North Shoshone Street on a snowy and cold February day.
Dressed in short sleeves and coated with snow, Moscoso told officers he believed a girl was being sexually assaulted inside the home. The story was not true.
Body camera videos obtained by 9NEWS suggest Moscoso was spiraling that day in 2022.
“I smoked some blues,” he told a police officer.
He went to jail for a few weeks for criminal trespassing.
Months later, Moscoso’s parole officer grew increasingly frustrated with her inability to get him to return her phone calls.
“It should not take threats of a warrant for [Moscoso] to call,” she wrote in a report.
The following month, a visibly intoxicated Moscoso was arrested while sitting in someone’s front yard in Jefferson County. A car, gushing fluid, was still on the road a few feet away.
“It looks like you were in an accident,” a Wheat Ridge Police officer said.
“No, no. That’s old,” replied Moscoso, according to the body camera video.
“I’ve been drinking, man. OK? I’m not perfect, OK? That’s why I’m sitting right here,” he said to another officer.
Officers arrested him on suspicion of DUI.
Not long after, his parole officer had seen enough.
“[Moscoso has] no regard for parole and laws,” she wrote as she recommended the state revoke his parole and send him back to prison.
9NEWS spent months requesting records, reviewing body camera recordings, and talking to families most impacted by the decision to go against the recommendation and not revoke Moscoso’s parole.
“You have to lose a little faith in the system,” Monique Whitney told us after reviewing our findings.
Whitney’s 83-year-old mother Judy Corcoran, according to police, was Moscoso’s second victim last year.
“This is an issue that’s eating at me," she said. "It’s like, why? Why? Why? Why was this guy out, and why did he do this?" she asked. "Why was he allowed to coast on through the system?”
Sept. 14, 2023
Hours after Denver Police say Moscoso repeatedly stabbed Fidel Sanchez-Banuelos, 51, in the back of a Regional Transportation District bus, Moscoso received a text message from his parole officer.
Notes in Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) records show she wanted to know where he was.
“He stated where he always is,” read the report reviewed by 9NEWS.
52nd and Federal.
At the time, Moscoso had no permanent residence and was living in a park in the area. There’s nothing in the records that suggest the parole officer had any suspicion of his involvement in the RTD death.
When the two met, the parole officer asked, “where his shirt was.”
“He stated he was working on a tan,” read the report. But that wasn’t all.
“Offender had odd facial expressions and stared off," the report read.
The parole officer handed him “2 books of bus tickets” before Moscoso “walked away.”
Denver Police believe Moscoso, perhaps just minutes later, then repeatedly stabbed Judy Corcoran, 83, near the intersection of 50th and Federal.
Nothing more than chance, it would appear, brought the two together that day.
Corcoran, according to her daughter, had only recently started walking near the Regis University campus.
“Because the sidewalks were good,” Whitney said. “She used to walk in the older neighborhood.”
“But the sidewalks were trash,” she added.
Whitney’s father called her that day with the news.
“He was almost hysterical by the time he got 10 words out, and my father is not prone to hysterics,” she said.
“I still expect to see her come around the corner, you know, just to say hi,” she said. “But she’s just gone, and I’m never going to get to see her again. I really, really, really could use her help right now.”
The two stabbings, both fatal, resulted in a pair of murder charges for Moscoso.
It also resulted in significantly more questions.
For both families.
And for us.
Assessments not done
Colorado DOC policy states inmates released to parole “will be assessed … within 30 days of release.”
“Reassessment will occur six months from the date of the initial offender risk assessment date and at a minimum of every six months, thereafter,” according to the policy.
Why?
“It is the policy of the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) Division of Adult Parole to assess all offenders for risk/needs utilizing a validated tool, to determine the supervision level and program needs for each offender," the policy states.
“In order to safeguard the community and identify the program needs of the offender,” the policy adds.
But, 9NEWS has learned it took 21 months for Moscoso to receive his initial CST – or Community Supervision Tool – assessment after his July 2021 release from prison.
It’s not clear why, and the Colorado Department of Corrections has repeatedly denied our request for an on-camera interview.
During those 21 months, Moscoso was arrested twice – one for criminal trespass in Denver in February 2022 and the other for DUI in Jefferson County in June 2022.
In October 2022, following the recommendation of his parole officer that Moscoso’s parole be revoked, Colorado Parole Board member Joe Morales led a revocation hearing in which, according to audio reviewed by 9NEWS, he relied on the scoring of an assessment that was done in 2019 while Moscoso was still in prison.
The score determined Moscoso was medium risk.
Morales decided not to send Moscoso back to prison.
“I will not disappoint you guys,” Moscoso said.
“You have an opportunity here, so please don’t squander it, OK?” Morales said.
“Absolutely,” Moscoso replied.
Morales declined a 9NEWS request for comment.
Moscoso – still in jail on the Jefferson County DUI case – left jail in late March 2023. Two weeks later, he finally received his first risk assessment while on parole.
9NEWS has identified at least two errors in that assessment that ultimately led to an incorrect conclusion.
In one section, the assessment concluded Moscoso’s last use of alcohol was in 2019. That same section indicated his last use of drugs was also in 2019.
Both were not true, according to Moscoso’s own words offered to arresting officers during the pair of 2022 arrests.
Had the scoring been done correctly, Moscoso would have been designated high-risk and subject to even more supervision.
The months that followed the jail release were marked, according to DOC records, by various highs and lows for Moscoso.
In May 2023, DOC records show “[Moscoso] stated he is doing well and is going to start working tomorrow.”
Two weeks later, the transitional housing he was in kicked him out.
He got back in the following month but in July was kicked out again.
In August, he was out of a job and out of any remaining place to live.
“He is staying in park or motels when he has money,” read the parole officer’s report.
The following month, Denver Police say, he murdered two strangers.
Victims' families livid
Esmeralda Sanchez’s brother Fidel Sanchez-Banuelos died in the care of a stranger in the back of an RTD bus. Sanchez said the stranger was the son of a police officer.
“He told me he went as far as to pray for [my brother] because he knew at that point he was just bleeding too much,” Sanchez said. “The amount of damage was just so severe.”
“It’s huge to us to know that someone was with him,” she said.
She still can’t understand how a twice-arrested, still-using, and spiraling parolee managed to avoid going back to prison.
“Flags went up,” she said. “Why did that continue to happen? I feel it could have been prevented.”
It’s a feeling shared by the daughter of Judy Corcoran, who died hours after Sanchez died.
“He had no regard for parole and laws. Yeah, yeah, he's got no regard for the law. He's got no regard for obviously, life,” she said.
“And the fact is, they knew it. They had people who are trained to notice these kinds of things, and they still let him skate,” she said.
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