Criminal record of suspect in 16th Street Mall stabbings

DENVER — The man accused of murdering two people on the 16th Street Mall Saturday and Sunday spent the better part of 2023 and 2024 locked up in either the state prison system or the downtown Denver jail, according to records reviewed by 9NEWS Investigates. 

Critically, Elijah Caudill left the Denver jail precisely two months before the stabbings, under the assistance of a state program designed to assist mentally ill inmates.

Denver Police believe Caudill, 24, stabbed four people – three on Saturday and one on Sunday – along the 16th Street Mall. Two victims survived. Police arrested Caudill after the fourth attack. 

In a news conference Monday, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said not only did police not know where Caudill was between the stabbings, they also don’t know where he’s been since he was released from jail in November.

The murders came two months after the release of Caudill from the Denver jail under the assistance of Bridges of Colorado. According to Bridges’ own website, Bridges “places Court Liaisons across Colorado’s 22 judicial districts to serve defendants (referred to as participants) in the criminal justice system who have significant mental health needs. Bridges facilitates collaboration between the criminal justice and mental health systems by partnering with providers, courts, and often families to provide wraparound care for participants.”

Caudill’s public criminal record dates to 2019 with a relatively unremarkable arrest for allegedly stealing baseball cards at a Walmart in Adams County. The charges were eventually dropped. 

Two years later, in 2021, a judge sentenced Caudill to 24 months of probation after Caudill pleaded guilty to assault. Prosecutors alleged Caudill confronted a property manager with a knife in Westminster.

But in the news conference, Thomas said Caudill was not on Denver Police’s radar because he didn’t have a violent history.

“I actually don’t think it’s safe to say that he is on our radar,” Thomas said. “I mean certainly (Caudill) has had law enforcement contacts in the metro area, but, (he’s) not someone that has a violent history. Not someone that we would have been watchful for certainly.”

RELATED: 16th Street Mall stabbings suspect arrested in 2021 for threatening man with knife during tussle

While in community corrections, Caudill pleaded guilty to attempting to steal a woman’s purse while the woman was shopping, on a motorized cart, in a Westminster Target in 2022.

In January 2023, an Adams County judge sentenced Caudill to 18 months of community corrections for the purse theft.

In February 2023, Adams County prosecutors charged Caudill for doing more than $1,000 worth of damage to the Adams County Detention Facility. Specific details of that case are not yet known.

The following month, in March 2023, an Adams County judge resentenced Caudill on both the purse theft and knife incident. That’s when Caudill first went to prison on a 15-month sentence.

The Colorado Department of Corrections said Caudill started serving that prison sentence on April 4, 2023, and was released to parole on Aug. 28, 2023.

In January of last year, court records suggest Caudill groped a woman at the Denver Cares Detox Facility. While in the Denver Jail on that case, prosecutors allege Caudill, on two consecutive days, assaulted two inmates inside the jail. In the latter incident, court records suggest Caudill placed a female in a chokehold before punching her in the face. Both cases resulted in misdemeanor charges. 9NEWS Investigates has reached out to the Denver District Attorney seeking additional information.

While Caudill’s parole came to an end in May of last year, he remained in the Denver jail. Court records show there were inquiries as to whether Caudill was incompetent to stand trial on the 2024 Denver charges.

In late May, Caudill faced another assault case in jail, and then in August, prosecutors charged him for shattering a glass door in the jail’s rec center.

With many of those misdemeanor cases still pending, Bridges accepted Caudill as “a participant” on Nov. 12. It’s not clear what happened after that. Court records show in December, Caudill failed to make a court appearance for the alleged sex assault at Denver Cares.

It’s not known what kind of interaction Bridges had with Caudill following the missed court appearance.

Caudill is currently back in the Denver jail, awaiting new charges stemming from the 16th Street Mall attacks.