‘Sexually violent’ Colorado Springs man pleads not guilty to rape, murder by reason of insanity
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - It's been over a year since 27-year-old Allison Scarfone was found dead. Two days after the anniversary of her death, the man accused of raping and killing her pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Gregory Whittemore, 40, is charged with the first-degree murder of Scarfone. Court documents state Whittemore ripped her clothes off, raped her, killed her, and put her in a car inside a garage at his home. He reportedly admitted to his friends that he killed Scarfone in 2022, but his attorneys have since raised concerns that he's incompetent to stand trial. The defense claims he was physically unable to understand what was happening throughout the criminal process.
After a mental health stay of around six months, he was found competent to stand trial in March 2023. Now, seven months later, his attorney has raised a different concern: claiming that Whittemore was insane at the time of the alleged crime.
Thursday, El Paso County District Judge Monica Gomez ruled that Whittemore will go through the evaluation process to determine if he was insane at the time of the crime at the El Paso County Jail. His defense attorney requested the evaluation be completed at the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo. However, after documented delays in getting people into the CMHHIP, Judge Gomez chose the jail instead.
If Whittemore is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would be permanently committed to the Department of Human Services custody to be restored. If at any point the evaluators there deem he is restored, Whittemore can petition a judge to be released back into the community.
13 Investigates spoke with Scarfone's family about Thursday's development. They say they're frustrated that an already drawn-out court process and journey to justice will only get longer with Whittemore's insanity plea.
"We really can't heal. I don't think that we will ever heal. But we can't even really begin to heal right now," Scarfone's sister, Meadow Scarfone, said. "He's just dragging it out. We've seen it coming. It's frustrating in the sense that we have to let it happen."
13 Investigates previously found in a February special report that Whittemore was on parole at the time of the alleged murder. He already did a stint in prison for the violent sexual assault of an El Paso County massage worker back in 2012.
He was sentenced to up to life in prison, referred to as an indeterminate sentence, a sentence solely reserved for convictions involving sex crimes. However, in March 2021, he was let out of prison early by the Colorado Parole Board and was ordered to wear an ankle monitor, among other conditions of release.
On the year anniversary of Scarfone's murder, her family is still pleasing for accountability from the people responsible for releasing a known, violent sexual predator out of prison to re-offend.
"It's just going to end up happening again to somebody else if they let him out. And if it does happen, it's, I can't even imagine it," Scarfone's sister, Anna Payne, said.
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