Denver- www.denverpost.com- A male escort was convicted this afternoon of the premeditated murder of his boss and former sexual partner, and now will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Timothy Boham, 28, was found guilty by a 9-woman, 3-man jury in Denver District Court of first-degree murder after deliberation, felony murder and aggravated assault. Colorado law mandates that a person found guilty of first-degree murder must spend the rest of their life in prison, without the possibility of parole. Judge Will Hood Jr. will hand the sentence down Tuesday.
The jury took less than five hours to convict Boham, whose lawyers, Amber St. Clair and Kristan Wheeler claimed that his victim, wealthy businessman J.P. Kelso, committed suicide. They tried to sway the jury that the murder scene was merely a cover-up for the suicide so that Kelso’s life insurance policy would pay out.
According to four days of testimony, Boham had a paid sexual encounter in late 2005 with J.P. Kelso, a wealthy businessman who lived on Seventh Avenue Parkway. Kelso owned Professional Recovery Systems, a debt-collection agency where Boham briefly worked twice.
Boham, a former gay-porn actor, said he and Kelso hung out together numerous times in the 11 months they knew each other.
Boham murdered Kelso by shooting him in the head in Kelso’s house on East Seventh Avenue Parkway early in the afternoon of Nov. 13, 2006. According to testimony, Boham returned to the house several times to clean the body of fingerprints and to remove clothing, bedding, a shell casing and other material that was later found in Cherry Creek.
Boham also stole Kelso’s safe, bought a power saw and cut it open, believing it contained as much as $400,000. It was empty except for two car titles.
Boham went to his mother’s house in Aurora and admitted the shooting to her and his sister. He fled to Arizona but was captured three days later by customs officers near the Mexico border. He confessed to police during a videotaped interview, which was played to jurors. His mother, sister and former girlfriend all testified against him during the five-day trial.
Chief Deputy DA Bonnie Benedetti declined to comment after the verdict.