BOULDER, Colo. — A man suspected of fatally stabbing a Greenfield native during an argument in Colorado will face a charge of second- degree murder, and not a lesser count of manslaughter, a judge ruled this week.
Ian Scheuermann, 22, of Boulder, Colorado is accused of killing former Greenfield resident Sean Hudson during an altercation late last year near the University of Colorado campus in Boulder, where both men were attending school.
Boulder County Judge Karolyn Moore decided this week Colorado district attorneys had enough evidence to charge Scheuermann with second-degree murder. She denied the defense attorneys’ request to reduce the charge to reckless manslaughter, according to The Associated Press.
Investigators said Hudson was killed in a retail area near the university’s campus in Boulder. He had been stabbed six times, including once in the neck, and was pronounced dead as he was being transported to a hospital, police said.
Scheuermann was found near Hudson’s body, covered in blood, according to police reports. He told investigators he pulled a knife to defend himself after he, Hudson and several other men got into a fistfight about a girl, according to the report.
Scheuermann was arrested immediately following Hudson’s death on Dec. 12 but has since been released on a $100,000 bond.
He faces two felonies in the case: one count of second-degree murder and one count of menacing. A hearing was held this week in Boulder to determine whether there was probable cause to move forward with those charges, Sean Finn, a chief deputy for the Boulder District Attorney’s Office, who is handling the case, told the Daily Reporter.
Finn said he charged Scheuermann with second-degree murder because investigators believe the defendant used his knife to threaten Hudson and his friends prior to the fistfight.
Under Colorado law, second-degree murder is knowingly taking a life, while manslaughter is recklessly taking a life, Finn said.
Scheuermann’s attorney, Dan Gerash, argued in court that his client was acting in self-defense, and therefore the manslaughter charge was more fitting.
The judge ruled to uphold Finn’s decision, and Scheuermann’s case will continue with the more serious second-degree murder charge.
Police called Hudson and Scheuermann “mutual acquaintances.” Both were students at the University of Colorado campus in Boulder; Hudson worked as a teaching assistant in the university’s department of psychology and neuroscience while completing his doctorate.
Hudson graduated from Greenfield-Central High School in 2008, received a bachelor’s degree from Butler University and then moved to Colorado to continue his education.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.