Decades-old Aurora murder conviction upheld again by Colorado Appeals Court

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Heather Willard / NewsBreak Denver / March 3, 2023

(Aurora, Colo.) A Colorado appeals court denied the second appeal of a man convicted of the 1998 murder of a woman whose brutalized body was found under a bridge in Aurora.

Albert Grenier, 62, is serving a life sentence without a chance for parole in the Buena Vista Correctional Complex. Grenier was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, first-degree sexual assault, and misdemeanor abuse of a corpse and received sentence enhancements stipulating use of a weapon and violent crime resulting in death stemming from a 1998 case.

Grenier pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on Nov. 18, 1999, and was evaluated for sanity and competency at the Colorado Mental Health Institute. He was sentenced on Sept. 14, 2000, to serve life in the Colorado Department of Corrections. He appealed his sentence, which was upheld in 2008.

In April 2010, Grenier filed a civil rights action, claiming his rights had been denied at trial. His appeal was denied in August 2011. Grenier appealed his case again in 2021, leading to the March 2 appeals court decision.

According to court records, Grenier was sentenced for a woman’s brutal death in 1998. Her body was found under a bridge in Aurora on July 3, 1998. The woman had been strangled, stabbed and sodomized after death.

Grenier was arrested in Florida on July 9, 1998, for a traffic violation. Bloodstains and a bloody knife were found in the trunk of the vehicle, and Grenier told Florida law enforcement about picking up the victim, bringing her to a hotel room and having a sexual encounter.

Grenier claimed the victim had attempted to steal his wallet, causing him to attack her and cause her death.

Grenier challenged his sentence, leading to a 2008 appeals decision that determined there was no basis to claim an unconstitutional warrantless search of the vehicle, the traffic stop was legal, he waived his Miranda rights and was not involuntarily intoxicated from chronic drug use.

The appeals case was heard again on Feb. 22 by Judge David Furman, who affirmed the previous order. His opinion was not published due to Colorado state law.