QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Chris Fabricant, the director of strategic litigation for the Innocence Project, said Genrich felt sympathy for the victim’s families.
“That wrongful conviction is traumatic for our clients, but it's also traumatic for victims who have real difficulty re-examining a case in which they may not have gotten justice. And so it's a painful day in court for a lot of people, and nobody wins in wrongful conviction,” Fabricant said. “And this felt like one of those days.”
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QUOTE TWO OF THE DAY: "Fabricant said the success of seeing the murder charges dropped is tempered by the fact that Genrich is still in prison.
“It's incredibly frustrating, really, that he remains incarcerated based on a technicality,” Fabricant said, referring to an earlier decision that Genrich’s appeal on lesser charges was not filed on time. “The central evidence in the case was found to be grossly unreliable junk science. And that same evidence is the only evidence that connects Mr. Genrich, allegedly, to the crime scene evidence.”
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Though the earlier convictions on first-degree murder are voided, Genrich is still in prison on other charges related to the bombings, including the illegal use of explosives. The now-debunked evidence that was used to convict Genrich — testimony that his tools alone could have made the bombs in question — is the same evidence related to the other convictions. However, Judge Flynn declined a request from Gernich’s legal team to have those charges considered along with the murder charges."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Fabricant said the success of seeing the murder charges dropped is tempered by the fact that Genrich is still in prison.
“It's incredibly frustrating, really, that he remains incarcerated based on a technicality,” Fabricant said, referring to an earlier decision that Genrich’s appeal on lesser charges was not filed on time. “The central evidence in the case was found to be grossly unreliable junk science. And that same evidence is the only evidence that connects Mr. Genrich, allegedly, to the crime scene evidence.”
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STORY: "Judge accepts motion to dismiss murder charges in Grand Junction pipe bombing case," by Reporter Tom Hesse, published by 000 om April 13, 2026. (Tom Hesse joined CPR News in 2023 as the Western Slope Producer for Colorado Matters._
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GIST: "A packed courtroom that included some frustrated victims’ family members watched Judge Brian Flynn make it official on Monday that James Genrich will not be retried on murder charges related to a string of bombings in Grand Junction more than three decades ago.
Genrich has been in prison in Colorado since his 1993 conviction on charges related to the bombings, which killed Henry Ruble and Maria Gonzales.
Genrich has maintained his innocence and successfully won a new trial in 2023 after a defense team that included attorneys from the Innocence Project proved that a key piece of evidence in the conviction was based on debunked forensic science. An appeals court later upheld that new trial decision.
Before Flynn ruled on the motion to dismiss charges, he heard from family members of Ruble and Gonzales. Both speakers said they did not see the dropping of the charges as an indication that Genrich had been cleared of the crimes.
“I don’t think it’d be safe for him to get out of jail,” said a relative of Maria Gonzales.
Though the earlier convictions on first-degree murder are voided, Genrich is still in prison on other charges related to the bombings, including the illegal use of explosives. The now-debunked evidence that was used to convict Genrich — testimony that his tools alone could have made the bombs in question — is the same evidence related to the other convictions. However, Judge Flynn declined a request from Gernich’s legal team to have those charges considered along with the murder charges.
A relative of Henry Ruble’s who spoke on behalf of the Ruble family affirmed their belief that he was the culprit for the bombings, saying Henry Ruble’s “future and ours with it was taken.”
“You may have manipulated the system after 33 years, but this decision does not erase the truth,” the family member said to Genrich, who appeared via video conference from the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Crowley County.
Chris Fabricant, the director of strategic litigation for the Innocence Project, said Genrich felt sympathy for the victim’s families.
“That wrongful conviction is traumatic for our clients, but it's also traumatic for victims who have real difficulty re-examining a case in which they may not have gotten justice. And so it's a painful day in court for a lot of people, and nobody wins in wrongful conviction,” Fabricant said. “And this felt like one of those days.”
Before dismissing the case, Flynn said he did look into the circumstances by which a judge could refuse a prosecutor’s request, but said such cases are “very, very limited.”
“It’s hard to even think of an example, quite frankly,” Flynn said.
Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Savage said the decision for prosecutors to drop the charges did not come lightly.
“We had some very difficult and challenging conversations with the families,” Savage said. “We do not expect the victim’s families to be completely satisfied with the outcome in this case.”
No longer convicted of murder, still in prison
With the murder charges dropped, Genrich is left serving prison time for three counts of use of an explosive device, totaling a 72-year sentence. Genrich is scheduled for a meeting with the parole board in May. According to the Department of Corrections, his estimated parole eligibility date under the remaining convictions was Nov. 14, 2019.
Fabricant said the success of seeing the murder charges dropped is tempered by the fact that Genrich is still in prison.
“It's incredibly frustrating, really, that he remains incarcerated based on a technicality,” Fabricant said, referring to an earlier decision that Genrich’s appeal on lesser charges was not filed on time. “The central evidence in the case was found to be grossly unreliable junk science. And that same evidence is the only evidence that connects Mr. Genrich, allegedly, to the crime scene evidence.”
Fabricant said Genrich’s team will advocate to the parole board to get him released, but they intend to explore further appeals as well.
Fabricant said they have not asked Gov. Jared Polis’ office for clemency in the case, “but it's something that we will certainly consider.”
Polis has repeatedly made headlines in recent months for his comments around clemency and unfair sentencing.
Fabricant said the success of seeing the murder charges dropped is tempered by the fact that Genrich is still in prison.
“It's incredibly frustrating, really, that he remains incarcerated based on a technicality,” Fabricant said, referring to an earlier decision that Genrich’s appeal on lesser charges was not filed on time.
“The central evidence in the case was found to be grossly unreliable junk science. And that same evidence is the only evidence that connects Mr. Genrich, allegedly, to the crime scene evidence.""
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.cpr.org/author/tom-hesse/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."Lawyer Radha Natarajan: Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
