Log in
My Account
Subscribe 99¢ for 3 months
Newsletter
Finger pushing
weather icon 51°F
Weather from WeatherAPI

Daily Weather Report
Powered By:

Login
My Account
Subscribe
Newsletter

Archive Information

Carrier Portal

Search

Buy Our Photos

16th Street Mall stabbing suspect spent last six years in and out of jail

By January 14, 2025 | updated 1 year ago

1 of 6
Elijah Caudill

Elijah Caudill, 24, was arrested in connection to four stabbings in downtown Denver on Jan. 11 and Jan. 12.

Courtesy photo, Denver Police Department

The suspect in four random stabbings that occurred this weekend in downtown Denver was no stranger to the police.

Elijah David Caudill, 24, who appeared to be on probation, had threatened to kill at least one person with a knife in years past, according to records. 

Caudill appeared in court Monday morning for his first advisement. He is currently being held without bond.

He is in jail on suspicion of first-degree murder of an at-risk elder, first-degree murder, and two counts of attempted murder.

Three of the stabbings occurred within an hour and just blocks from one another on the 16th Street Mall Saturday evening, while the fourth happened on Sunday night about a mile away.

Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said that Caudill used a butcher knife.

“I actually don’t think it’s safe to say that he is on our radar. He certainly has had law enforcement contacts in metro area, but not someone that has a violent history, not someone that we were watching what comes next,” Thomas said. 

.”

Thomas gave details of this weekend’s violence:

  • The stabbing at 16th and Tremont streets occurred at 5:12 pm. on Saturday. The male victim, who was slashed in the face, went to the hospital on his own and was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

  • The stabbing at 16th and California streets occurred about five minutes later at 5:17 p.m. The female victim was stabbed in the throat and taken to a hospital, where she died.

  • In the stabbing that occurred at 16th and Lawrence streets at about 5:54 p.m. on Saturday, the victim was a man who was stabbed in the arm and torso and taken to the hospital with serious injuries. He is expected to survive.

  • The fourth stabbing occurred at 16th and Wynkoop streets around 8:06 p.m. Sunday. (The location was initially reported as 16th and Market). The male victim, who was taken to a hospital, died from his injuries.

The police saw Caudill running with the knife in his hand before they realized he had stabbed a person, Thomas said.

Caudill, who grew up in the northwest Denver metro area, has been arrested 15 times since 2018 on charges that included criminal mischief, disturbing the peace, robbery (2022), menacing (2021), theft (2019), and twice for sex assault (2024), court records showed.

Two of those 15 arrests occurred in Adams County.

In August 2021, Caudill lunged at the manager of a Commerce City apartment complex with a knife and threatened to cut the man’s throat before he fled. He was arrested for felony menacing, a Class 5 felony, and released on a $1,500 cash/surety bond, according to court documents.

The case was closed in June 2022, but only after Caudill appeared to miss a court date and was arrested for that offense.

Three months later, a woman noticed a man in a John Deere hoodie hanging around the front of a Target store at 101 E. 120th in Thornton. She said the man followed her inside, grabbed her purse, and ran away without it. Thornton police arrested him that afternoon in front of a Dollar store near the Target. That case was closed in January 2023. 

Among the other cases against Caudill was a sexual assault charge in January 2024 out of Denver. Prosecutors in that case asked for a “competency pre-screen,” according to court records.

Thomas said that Caudill’s first encounter with law enforcement was in 2016. 

It appeared that Caudill was sentenced to a year of supervised probation for an assault conviction on June 3, 2024, court records showed.

The last time Caudill was arrested was this past August in Denver on a criminal mischief charge, which appeared to have occurred at Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center across from the Lindsey-Flannigan Courthouse on Colfax.

Denver Gazette City Editor Dennis Huspeni contributed to this story.

Sign Up For Free: Weekly 7

Catch up with a rundown of the 7 most important and interesting stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

View all of our newsletters.

Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

View all of our newsletters.

function subscribeSuccess() {
var nsltrform = document.querySelector(“#nsltr”);
var nsltrSuccess = document.querySelector(“#successnsltr”);

nsltrform.classList.add(“hideblock”);
nsltrSuccess.classList.remove(“hideblock”);
}

function validateEmail(email) {
return String(email)
.toLowerCase()
.match(
/^(([^()[].,;:s@”]+(.[^()[].,;:s@”]+)*)|(“.+”))@(([[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}])|(([a-zA-Z-0-9]+.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/
);
}

function validateEmailAddress() {
const result = document.querySelector(“#result”);
const email = document.querySelector(“#email”).value;

result.innerText = “”;

if(validateEmail(email)) {
newsletterSubscribe(email);
} else {
result.innerText = ‘The email entered: ‘ + email + ‘ is not valid :(‘;
result.style.color = “red”;
}
return false;
}

function newsletterSubscribe(email) {
fetch(“https://services.gazette.com/mg2-newsletters.php?action=subscribe&site=denvergazette.com&emailPreferenceId=69&email=” + email, {
method: “POST”
}).then(res => {
console.log(“SUCCESSFUL POST”);
subscribeSuccess();
});

}

#nsltr {
min-width: 100%;
margin: 10px 0;
padding: 10px 20px;
background-color: #2076b3;

background-image: url(https://static.gazette.com/emails/circ/Audience%20Images/dg%20weekly%207.png);
background-size: cover;

}

#nsltr-header {
color: #fff4f4;
}
#nsltr-body {
text-align: center;
color: #ffffff;
}
#nsltr-button {
margin-top: 5px;
}
#successnsltr {
min-width: 100%;
margin: 10px 0;
padding: 10px 20px;
background-color: green;
text-align: center;
color: white;
}

#successnsltr a {
color: white;
}

.hideblock {
display:none;
}

h6 a {
color: black;
text-decoration: none;
padding: 5px;
background-color: #bbccdd;
font-weight: 600;
}

@media only screen and (min-width: 768px) {
#nsltr {
background-image: url(https://static.gazette.com/emails/circ/Audience%20Images/dg%20weekly%207.png);
background-size: cover;
}
}

Carol McKinley

Reporter

Welcome Back.

Streak: 9 days i

Stories you've missed since your last login:

Stories you've saved for later:

Recommended stories based on your interests:

Edit my interests