Lisl Auman

Grab a beer and join us tonight as we cover the case of Lisl Auman — the only person in Colorado history convicted of murder while she was handcuffed in the back of a police car. In 1997, a 21-year-old woman brought some guys along to retrieve her stuff from an ex-boyfriend's place in the mountains. What followed was a high-speed chase, a standoff at a Denver apartment complex, and the shooting death of Officer Bruce VanderJagt — a murder committed by her associate Matthaeus Jaehnig, who then turned the gun on himself. Lisl never fired a shot. She was already under arrest when it happened. She got life without parole anyway. We'll break down the felony murder rule that made it possible, the two cops who suspiciously revised their reports two days after the fact using nearly identical language, and how a dying Hunter S. Thompson threw the full weight of his gonzo legacy behind getting her out — rallying everyone from Warren Zevon to Johnny Depp to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers along the way. It took eight years, but the Colorado Supreme Court finally agreed something had gone very wrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices