Stephen Geer, the man responsible for the death of 33-year-old Golden police officer Evan Dunn — the first on-duty death in the Golden Police Department’s history — was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Wednesday.

Geer pleaded guilty to one count of vehicular homicide and one count of vehicular assault in October. 

Police, firefighters and family members packed a Jefferson County courtroom Wednesday morning to both mourn Dunn and support Greer at the sentencing.

“Due to the actions of Stephen Geer, my life has a giant hole in it that can never be filled,” Lucinda Dunn, Evan Dunn’s mother, said to the court behind tears. “I go to sleep thinking about it. I wake up thinking about it. If someone I love doesn’t answer my call or text in a reasonable time, I panic… Nothing is the same and, in this life, it never will be.”

First Judicial District Judge Russell Klein sentenced Geer to nine years on the vehicular homicide charge and four years on the vehicular assault charge. The sentences will run consecutively and then be followed by five years of mandatory parole. 

The sentencing hearing carried on for over six hours with multiple friends and family members giving impact statements on both the defense and victim’s sides. 

Klein said sentencing these types of cases is difficult because “what you frequently have in a case like this is a defendant who comes to the court with no prior criminal conduct.”

“No mistake about it. The type of offense here is amongst the most serious,” Klein said.

The incident occurred on Nov. 6, 2024 when Geer, a former Colorado School of Mines mechanical engineering professor, crashed into a vehicle parked at another crash on Highway 58 around 5 p.m.

Dunn and his partner, Ofc. Bethany Grusing, were attending to the first crash. The officers were helping Annie Pearse and her father, Jim Pearse.

Geer entered the scene in his Mazda CX9 and crashed into a vehicle, pinning Dunn and Grusing under a car for 35 minutes and sending the Pearses into the air.

“Our family has had to rebuild our lives around injuries, limitations, fear and grief,” Annie Pearse told the court. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and basilar skull fracture from the crash.

Other officers arrived and could not get the two cops from under the vehicle, even crawling under the car to attempt to pull the duo out, according to Golden Police Chief Joe Harvey.

“Their uniforms will forever be stained with the blood of their teammates. All they could do was hold Evan’s hands, telling him it would be OK. Letting him know they were there,” he told the court.

The Golden Fire Department eventually arrived and was able to free the officers. Dunn was pronounced dead and Grusing was taken to a nearby hospital with facial fractures. Jim Pearse also suffered injuries and survived.

Grusing, who was training Dunn at the time, grappled with guilt, eventually returning to the force after only two months, according to her father Johnny Grusing.

Geer refused a blood and breathalyzer test at the scene, but Geer’s blood alcohol concentration came back at a .168 four hours later at the hospital, according to prosecutor Brian Domingues. He also accelerated four seconds before the crash and was moving 69 mph in a 55 mph area.

Furthermore, the prosecution said that cellphone data showed Geer going from work to different liquor stores five times on the day of the crash. There were four similar transactions on Nov. 5, three on Nov. 3 and two on Nov. 1.

“The defendant’s decision to do this throughout the day was just a ticking time bomb,” Domingues said. “Unfortunately, it went off on Nov. 6.”

Both Geer’s defense attorney, Megan Downing, and his family spoke of his battle with depression and alcoholism, especially after the losses of his father and best friend just prior to the crash.

“All he ever wanted in life was to be a good person and go unnoticed,” Lynn Noesner, Geer’s wife, said. “This was the antithesis of everything he ever wanted.”

Since the crash, Geer has stuck to sobriety and goes to Alcoholics Anonymous every week, according to the defense. And, with his lack of criminal history and traffic infractions, the defense asked for the minimum sentence of four years.

“He will regret forever that this is what it took for him to get well,” Downing said, adding that Geer could have aimed for a probation sentence if the defense took the case to court. Even if Geer was convicted during a trial, he still could have received just probation, but Geer wanted to take a plea deal with a minimum prison sentence. 

Downing said she had never seen anything like it.

The plea deal also dropped one felony and two misdemeanors of the five counts he was initially charged with.

Geer, wearing a suit and glasses, stared ahead as people spoke.

In a statement to the court, Geer apologized to all of the families, including both his wife and young daughter.

“The day I step out of prison, my responsibilities will not be done. I hope to help others break the cycle of addiction before it destroys more lives,” he said.

The prosecution and victims’ families asked for the maximum sentence, which could have stretched over 18 years in prison.

Dunn was fresh in his policing career, but he had already reached the rank of captain in the National Guard, acting as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot.

“He was precious. He was a gift. He was part of me. He was hope for the future,” Dunn’s mother said.

“Grief is everywhere. It’s in a sunny day. It’s in the laughter of my nieces and nephews. It’s the small joys,” Dunn’s wife, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “We are not just fighting for what Evan meant to all of us. We’re fighting for what he could have meant to this community.”

Following the sentencing, District Attorney Alexis King and Harvey met with media to thank the judge for his sentencing decision.

“Satisfaction is a hard word,” King said, noting that no sentence can bring Dunn back. “I do appreciate the court’s willingness to recognize the separate counts.”