When Sean May was ambushed at his home on the 3300 block of West 36th Avenue on Aug. 27, 2008, one obvious clue seemed to be what he did for a living.
May, 37, had just been promoted to chief deputy district attorney in Adams county.
After he was killed, a defense attorney came forward and told Denver detectives that shortly before May was gunned down he received a phone call from May, who warned him that the family of someone the man had defended had made some threats.
May told the lawyer to be careful.
Denver police scoured the records of 1,000 felony and 3,000 misdemeanor cases for clues about who would have wished to kill May.
On Friday, more than three years after the slaying, Denver police Lt. Matt Murray released photographs of two persons of interest captured by surveillance cameras in a 7-Eleven near May’s home at about the time May was shot.
- Two years ago, police also released a composite drawing of a man a witness had seen running away from the area May was shot shortly after it happened.
He was described as white or Latino in his late teens or early 20s who stood about 5 feet 11 inches and had a medium build. The man had medium-length dark hair and a dark mustache and goatee and was wearing a black baseball cap turned backward, a white T-shirt and khaki-colored, knee-length cargo-style pants.
May was shot in the back of the head and in the lower back.
He died at a hospital a few hours after he was shot, leaving behind his wife, Corin, who was pregnant with the couple’s first child, a son.
He worked in a big downtown law firm until 2001 when he took a huge pay cut to become a junior prosecutor in Adams County.
After May’s death District Attorney Don Quick implemented safety measures for prosecutors.
May’s murder was the first of a prosecutor anyone could document in Colorado and just the 11th killing of its kind in the country.
A $125,000 reward remains for information leading to the arrest and conviction of May’s killer.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.