Palomino convicted of second-degree murder; Logan Sisson was stabbed at Longmont party

After 11 hours of deliberating, a 12-person jury this afternoon convicted Raymond “Michael” Palomino of second-degree murder for stabbing Logan Sisson in the heart in a Longmont park on April 20.

Palomino

The jury – made up of eight women and four men – also convicted Palomino, 26, of possession of a controlled substance and of child abuse for bringing his young son into a dangerous situation.

Palomino could spend up to 24 years in prison on the murder charge, up to six years on the drug charge and up to one year on the child abuse charge.

Palomino’s defense attorney Mark Johnson told jurors in closing arguments on Tuesday that his client brought a knife to the park after his girlfriend, Mariena Harris, 19, told him over the phone that Sisson had assaulted her and her friend Lakesha Crutcher, 20.

As Palomino pulled up to the park with Robert Wittmer, 36, he saw something that gave him reason to believe that his girlfriend was in imminent danger, and he acted in her defense, Johnson said.

Prosecutors argued that Harris and Crutcher had gone after Sisson because he had called them names earlier in the night, and they were equally culpable for the fight that ensued before the stabbing.

By the time Palomino arrived, according to prosecutors, the fight was over and no violence was necessary.

Palomino let his girlfriend, Harris, take the blame for the fatal stabbing, and she, Crutcher and Wittmer were arrested just hours after Sisson died. Palomino was arrested days later because witness reports conflicted with the story that Palomino and his co-defendants told authorities.

Both Harris and Crutcher pleaded guilty in January to accessory charges and were sentenced to probation and a year in the Boulder County Jail’s work-release program in exchange for agreeing to testify in the trials of Palomino and Wittmer.

Wittmer, who faces accessory charges, is scheduled for trial Feb. 22.