Trial set for teen in father’s slaying

Aaron Clemens

Monday, July 24, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

A quiet and unresponsive Conan Pope, 15, was arraigned in District Court this morning on an open murder charge related to the shooting death of his father.

Pope ignored Judge Kathy Hardcastle's questions in an attempt to present something to the court and did not pay close enough attention to answer simple questions the first time he was asked. Deputy Special Public Defender Dayvid Figler said his client was probably following jail-house advice and trying to handle his own case.

Hardcastle set Pope's trial for Sept. 25 and did not let Pope say anything besides answer her questions.

Police allege that Pope, at the time a Silverado High School freshman, killed his father, Frank Pope, 62, on Jan. 6 with a Winchester .357-caliber lever-action rifle he had received as a Christmas gift from his father.

A friend of Frank Pope told police that Frank feared his son would shoot him just weeks before the fatal incident.

According to Conan's sister, Desiree, 16, their father grew angry after coming home to dirty dishes in the kitchen. He sent the siblings to their rooms and began smashing the dishes.

Conan Pope's attorneys argue that he fired on his father to protect his sister. They allege that Frank Pope had been walking toward his daughter's room with a broom when his son fired two fatal shots at him.

The teenager's attorneys also point to other violence by Frank Pope as justification for Conan Pope's fatal attack. That evidence includes police reports from Longmont, Colo., showing Frank Pope had been arrested a handful of times, including once for allegedly pointing a gun at the head of a woman and threatening to kill her if she blinked.

Two of Frank Pope's siblings flew from Massachusetts and Colorado to testify about the violent capacity of their brother.

The first indictment of Conan Pope for murder was thrown out because prosecutors failed to inform the grand jury that Frank Pope had been convicted of second-degree murder. Frank Pope served four years in a Washington prison for beating and suffocating his 11-month-old daughter, Sandra, in 1962.

According to Desiree Pope's testimony, just seconds after being sent to his room, Conan Pope came out with the rifle and yelled "you're going to die" before he fired the fatal shots.

Frank Pope died next to the kitchen table, she said. She denied any physical or sexual abuse by her father, although she admitted he often called his children vulgar names and that he once grabbed her by her hair and had choked her brother. She said her brother and father both had bad tempers but that she loves them both.