The former Boulder police
officer accused of stalking his ex-girlfriend and plotting to kill her new
boyfriend was sentenced Monday to 90 days in jail and 10 years of intensive
supervised probation after his victims indicated that would make them feel more
safe than a prison sentence.
Christian McCracken, 33, did
receive a suspended three-year prison sentence from Chief District Judge
Roxanne Bailin that he will serve only if he fails to comply with the terms of
his probation, which include an order not to return to the state of Colorado
without permission from his probation officer.
"My everyday life is
consumed by intrusive thoughts and fears, and I feel like I cannot stress how
dangerous I think he still is," McCracken's ex-girlfriend said in court.
"In five years, I will still be looking over my shoulder, still waiting
for him to finish his murderous plan."
McCracken pleaded guilty to one
count of stalking -- a Class 5 felony -- in February in exchange for
prosecutors dropping one charge of first-degree attempted murder, felony
menacing and two other counts of stalking.
While the stalking charge could
have carried a prison sentence of one to three years, prosecutor Ryan Brackley
asked for the jail sentence and probation because the victims felt the sentence
would keep them safer for a longer period of time, with the suspended prison
sentence serving as incentive.
"(McCracken's
ex-girlfriend) is angry about what the defendant did to her and what he did to
her life, but that anger never turned into a need for revenge -- it was always
just centered in fear, and the fear that the defendant's actions put her in and
their extended family," Brackley said. "They just want to feel safe,
and just want the court to impose a sentence that will make them feel
safe."
Injured in the line of duty
According to prosecutors,
McCracken stalked his ex-girlfriend and her current boyfriend -- both Boulder
police dispatchers -- and, at one point made, a plan to kill the boyfriend.
McCracken suffered a head
injury while making an arrest on University Hill in 2011, and the victim helped
take care of him. But she told the judge that McCracken began abusing his
medication and blaming his failure to get better on her.
After she asked him to stop
contacting her, McCracken began calling her and stalking her, she said --
sometimes asking co-workers to tell him where she was.
"I cannot understand why
he would want to hurt me when I took care of him and was a friend to him for so
long," she said.
Last April, McCracken retrieved
two of his own guns that he kept at the police station while on medical leave,
according to police. McCracken told his roommate -- fellow Boulder police
Officer John Smyly -- that he was going to shoot the male dispatcher in front
of his ex-girlfriend, kill her and then go up into the mountains to commit
suicide, according to police.
Smyly convinced McCracken to go
to Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette to be evaluated.
Broomfield police, having been contacted both by Boulder police and the
ex-girlfriend, arrived at the hospital to arrest McCracken.
In opposing the jail sentence,
McCracken's attorney, David Moorhead, said McCracken was adversely affected by
his head injury.
"Mr. McCracken was injured
in the line of duty and without that having happened, the people that know him
don't believe he would be here today," Moorhead said.
But prosecutors said there was
evidence that McCracken's behavior was disturbing before the head injury and
that he had expressed little remorse in the case. An ex-wife and some
ex-girlfriends said he made threats and disturbing statements to them,
according to prosecutors.
"These are things that
occurred well before the defendant's head injury," Brackley said.
Brackley added that, at one
point, McCracken asked the victim's sister out on a date and contacted other
members of the victims' families. He also made Facebook posts around the time
of his plea deal, writing, "I may look calm in my head but I've killed you
three times lmao!!!" and, "Patience is what you have to have when
there are too many witnesses."
'I ask for their forgiveness'
In making a statement to
Bailin, McCracken -- who resigned from the Boulder Police Department last year
-- apologized to the victims and the department.
"I cannot imagine what
(the victims) have been through because of what I said I was going to do,"
McCracken said. "I caused a great deal of embarrassment to the Boulder
Police Department and caused the community to lose trust in its officers.
"I hope over time (the
victims) can learn to feel safe again and I ask for their forgiveness and the
community's forgiveness."
In handing down the sentence,
Bailin said she thinks McCracken's head injury could not be used as an excuse
for his "outrageous and dangerous" behavior.
"I understand there are at
least two camps here, those who say you did this only because of the traumatic
brain injury, and those who say you did it because it is a manifestation of
your true colors," she said. "I think you are a dangerous person, and
I would say that you had these traits before the traumatic brain injury."
Bailin added that while Smyly
testified at the hearing that McCracken ultimately chose not to go through with
the plan, the officer's actions saved lives.
"I think I would be
presiding over a murder trial or a murder sentencing or not over anything
because you would have killed yourself, too," she said. "Everyone
owes (Smyly) because I think he stopped you from doing something you were
planning on doing."
McCracken was immediately
remanded into custody and transported to the Boulder County Jail.
Moorhead indicated the former
officer likely would serve his probation in Alabama, where he had been staying
during the case proceedings.