Barry Morphew, who has been charged in two different Colorado counties with killing his wife on Mother’s Day 2020, tried to sue one of the investigative teams over what he called a false arrest warrant.
DENVER (CN) – A 10th Circuit panel on Monday ALLEGED A lower court’s dismissal of a malicious prosecution case claims a man filed against the first circuit to charge him with murdering his wife.
“We discern no error in the district court’s conclusion that Mr. Morphew’s allegations do not reliably demonstrate a lack of probable cause,” U.S. District Judge Veronica Rossman wrote in a 41-page opinion.
Suzanne Morphew was reported missing from her home in Maysville, Colorado, on Mother’s Day in 2020. During a year-long investigation, her husband Barry Morphew met with law enforcement 60 times before being charged with her murder in May 2021.
Investigators argued that Morphhew killed his wife with a hunting tranquilizer gun on May 9, 2020, then spent the next day arranging an alibi before reporting her missing. Charges against Morphew were dismissed in April 2022 shortly before a scheduled trial.
On May 2, 2023, Morphew unsuspecting Chaffee County officials who investigated the case contributed to what he called a false arrest warrant. Morpheus asked court to award $15 million in damages and order law enforcement to release his property — including family photos and expensive hunting gear.
US District Judge Daniel Domenico, appointed by Donald Trump, discharged case on September 24, 2024. Morphew appealed.
While the 10th Circuit considered Morphew’s civil case, prosecutors in Colorado’s 12th Judicial District Attorney’s Office deposited new murder charges against him in June 2025 based on the discovery of Suzanne’s body in Saguache County in September 2023. Morphew has pleaded not guilty and is expected to stand trial in October.
From the lack of insect and animal activity around the body, investigators concluded that the remains had been moved there at some point.
Through toxicology tests, the El Paso County coroner found evidence of a chemical mixture used to tranquilize animals such as deer. Because the mixture had been metabolized, the coroner concluded that Morphew died after being sedated and listed her manner of death as “homicide by nonspecific means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication.”
However, the 10th Circuit did not consider either the second round of murder charges or the discovery of Suzanne Morphew’s remains, instead limiting their review to the lower court’s analysis of Morphee’s first arrest in Chaffee County in 2021. Although Domenico noted deficiencies in his county’s original prosecution, he agreed with its findings. the mistakes were not illegal.
“In particular, the impeachment order is replete with observations about the defendants’ alleged misconduct and misuse of the state criminal investigation,” said Rossman, a Joe Biden appointee. However, as the district court correctly observed, the statutory standard for an arrest does not require the same level of certainty as that for a conviction.
US District Judges Scott Matheson and Gregory Phillips, both appointed by Barack Obama, joined the panel’s opinion.
Morphew was represented on appeal by attorney David Fisher of Fisher & Byrialsen in Denver. In state court, his defense is led by attorney David Beller at Recht Kornfeld in Denver. Neither attorney immediately responded to a request for comment.
Attorney J. Andrew Nathan of Nathan Dumm in Denver represented Chaffee County in the appeal and did not respond to an inquiry for comment.
Subscribe to our free newsletters
Our weekly newsletter Closing arguments provides the latest on ongoing trials, major litigation and decisions in courts around the US and the world, while monthly Under the lights feeds legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.
