Man pleads guilty in stranglings
Jason...@virgin.net
By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer
June 30 - A Denver courtroom nearly erupted in violence Tuesday after a
man pleaded guilty to killing his ex-girlfriend and her 4-year-old
daughter last year.
Rodney Atkinson, 34, admitted he strangled 23-year-old Tracy Alvarez and
her daughter, Ashley Manlove, and then left their bodies in a car inside
the old Stapleton airport parking garage last November.
But Atkinson had to be restrained by deputy sheriffs when he tried to
climb over the defense table and attack a witness who was recalling the
lives of Ashley and her mother. As Atkinson charged the witness, younger
members of the Manlove and Alvarez families attempted to rush the
defense table but were intercepted.
Atkinson was quickly escorted from the courtroom to serve two
consecutive life terms in prison.
"Rodney Atkinson destroyed - no, murdered - a part of our hearts that
can never, ever be replaced,'' said Ashley's grandmother, Sandra
Manlove.
The bodies of Alvarez and her daughter were found Nov. 17 in the old
Stapleton airport parking garage in Alvarez's car, covered by a sheet.
Authorities believe Atkinson choked Alvarez to death shortly after she
finished talking on the phone to a new boyfriend, Willie Brown Jr. He
then turned on Ashley and strangled her so she couldn't be a witness to
her mother's murder.
Jealousy was the motive for the crime, prosecutors say. Though Atkinson
had other girlfriends and was the father of baby twins conceived by
another woman, he felt he had to have absolute control over Alvarez,
said prosecutors Sheila Rappaport and Curt Alfrey.
When Alvarez told him in no uncertain terms that their relationship was
over, he felt his ability to dominate slipping away, they said. Atkinson
and Alvarez had been sharing an apartment, but Alvarez was spending less
and less time there.
"It was a possession and control issue,'' Rappaport said. "It was a
matter of power and control. The relationship in his view was not over
until he said it was over. His sense of self is dependent on being able
to control other human beings.''
Had Atkinson not pleaded guilty to the two first-degree murder charges
and agreed to the two consecutive life sentences, Denver District
Attorney Bill Ritter would have sought the death penalty, Sandy Romero
of the DA's office said Tuesday.
Atkinson had not wanted to hear statements from the victims' families
and friends at the court hearing on Tuesday.
But Denver District Judge Jeff Bayless refused to allow him to go back
to his cell after he entered his guilty pleas to two charges of
firstdegree murder. During the midst of the melee, however, Bayless
ordered deputies to take Atkinson from the courtroom.
Tony Campbell, Alvarez's stepfather, told Bayless that he and Tracy's
mother, Delores Campbell, wanted "no mercy for Rodney Atkinson because
he showed no mercy on our daughter and granddaughter.''
"How could he have the audacity to do this to two beautiful people?''
Campbell said.
Brown, the new boyfriend, called Tracy and Ashley "two beautiful
people.''
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