Editor’s Note: Some may find the following content triggering or graphic.
On the fourth day of the trial for the former UCCS student accused of killing two people in Crestone House, the detective who interrogated the suspect testified, and a video of the interrogation was shown.
Nicholas Jordan, 25, is on trial for shooting and killing his roommate and UCCS student Samuel Knopp, 24, and Pueblo resident Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, in the early morning hours of Feb. 16, 2024, in Jordan and Knopp’s dorm room at the Crestone building in Alpine Village. The trial began on April 9.
On April 14, Detective Ed Crofoot, lead investigator for the case, testified that Jordan scanned into the east entrance of Crestone at 5:42 a.m. on Feb. 16 and a dark figure was seen running from Alpine Village at 5:56 a.m. that day.
A warrant was issued for Jordan’s arrest on the same day of the shooting, and he was arrested on Feb. 19, 2024. Crofoot interrogated Jordan for four hours with breaks. When told about his arrest warrant with a $1 million bond for a double homicide, Jordan said, “I don’t know anything about that. That sounds like some framework.”
In the footage of the interrogation, Jordan claims that he had not been to the apartment-style dorm room since winter break. Crofoot asked what Jordan was doing on campus between 3 and 6 a.m. on Feb. 16 and showed him the key card entries tied to his name.
“I probably drove by on Friday. I was not on campus, just through Colorado,” Jordan said. “That could’ve been me walking around, going to the restroom. I just used the restroom. I didn’t even use the restroom in my apartment; I was already gone by that time. I went to the restroom in the hallway [in Crestone] and left.”
When Crofoot asked if Jordan saw anything in the news, Jordan initially said his phone was shut off, so he had not been updated. Later, he said, “When did you guys learn about the incident? I saw it in the [notifications] on my phone. I saw it recently, probably today, or yesterday, maybe. I didn’t even know what it was talking about, I thought some more people got murdered.”
Jordan initially claimed to have never talked to Knopp or their third roommate, and that the two were “snitches,” referencing the reports made about Jordan’s excessive marijuana use and unhygienic behavior.
When Crofoot asks about the threats he made to Knopp on Jan. 15, Jordan said, “He was complaining, he was complaining a lot actually,” but never identified Knopp or the third roommate by name or description.
Jordan confirmed that he bought a handgun in Detroit in January, claiming that it came from a “legit source.” He said he bought the gun for protection after his car was broken into.
Recap of previous days of the trial
On April 9, the first day of the trial, Jordan and Knopp’s third roommate testified about the morning of the incident and the months leading up to the incident, according to previous reporting from the Scribe.
On April 10, the second day of the trial, UCCS music professor Jon Forshee testified, saying that Knopp told him that he gave Jordan rides around when his car was in the shop and smoked marijuana with him occasionally. Forshee said Knopp seemed “scared” after Jordan threatened to kill him on Jan. 15. Forsee said he last saw Knopp on Feb. 15 while working on Knopp’s senior project together.
On April 11, data analyst Kasey Constantino overviewed text messages and emails sent from Jordan’s phone and both victims’ phones. Jordan messaged an unknown number on Jan. 18, 2024, three days after Jordan allegedly threatened to kill Knopp, requesting a handgun. Constantino read out emails sent from both Jordan and Knopp to UCCS housing expressing dissatisfaction in their living situations.
Timeline of Jordan’s case before the trial
The case has seen numerous delays since starting 14 months ago. Here is a timeline of events:
- Feb. 23, 2024: Jordan appears in court for the first time, and the request to reduce his bond was denied, according to reporting from The Gazette.
- March 18, 2024: Jordan and his defense claim he isn’t competent enough to stand trial, and Judge David Shakes orders a mental evaluation to determine his competency. His preliminary hearing, which occurs before an arraignment, was scheduled for March 27 but was delayed indefinitely.
- March 26, 2024: Jordan faces new charges after an alleged assault involving a deputy while he was being held in the El Paso County jail. According to previous reporting from The Scribe, deputy Taylor Smith testified in court that Jordan had assaulted another deputy after they denied him cleaning supplies for the toilet in his cell.
- April 12, 2024: After an evaluation from Sarah Velsor, a forensic psychologist at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, found Jordan to be incompetent, a second competency evaluation was requested by the prosecution, according to reporting from The Gazette.
- July 12, 2024: Forensic psychiatrist Patricia Westmoreland testified in court that she found that Jordan was competent enough to procced, which conflicted with the first evaluation done by the psychologist. The evaluation, which was performed on April 30, found that he had mental health issues, but it did not make him unable to help his defense team.
- Aug. 2, 2024: Shakes ruled that Jordan was competent to stand trial after hearing testimony from both Velsor and Westmoreland. During the hearing, the defense used Velsor’s statements to argue that his “waxing and waning” symptoms have made it difficult to communicate with him, but the conflicting evaluations were enough for Shakes to deem Jordan competent.
- Sept. 3, 2024: Extensive evidence is revealed by investigators at the preliminary hearing that was initially scheduled for March 27. Detective Ed Crofoot testified that the cartridges found in Knopp’s dorm room matched a handgun that was found inside Jordan’s vehicle when he was arrested, and fingerprint found on the handgun’s magazine was a match for Jordan, according to previous reporting from The Scribe. He testified that Jordan was the only person who scanned into Crestone’s eastern entrance from midnight to 9 a.m. on Feb. 16, doing so twice less than 20 minutes prior to the police responding to the shots fired.
- Oct. 25, 2024: Jordan was supposed to enter a plea but was given extra time at the request of Rogers and Patrick, who said Jordan was “severely mentally ill” and that it was impacting the defense’s ability to represent him, according to past Scribe reporting.
- Nov. 22, 2024: Shakes denied the defense’s request for another arraignment and the defense entered a plea of not guilty. Shakes gave the defense until Jan. 31 to decide if the not guilty plea was by reason of insanity as the defense finished their investigation into Jordan’s competency, according to previous reporting from the Scribe.
- Jan. 31, 2025: The defense announces they will not pursue a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, according to past Scribe reporting.
- April 8, 2025: Trial begins, according to past Scribe reporting.
Nicholas Jordan enters the courtroom for a preliminary hearing on Sep. 6, 2024. Archive photo by Lillian Davis.