JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — The last person known to have been with Jax Gratton — who was missing for two months before her body was found in Lakewood in June — has been indicted on two counts connected with her death. He was arrested in Summit County on Wednesday.
Brandon David Mumma faces one count of tampering with a deceased human body and one count of tampering with evidence, according to the First Judicial District Attorney's Office. The office said on Wednesday afternoon that it believes he was the last person who was with Gratton before her death, and the two were in a consensual intimate relationship at the time.
Mumma is expected to appear in court on Friday.
Watch Denver7's latest update on this case from Wednesday's newscast in the video player below.
A grand jury for Jefferson and Gilpin counties returned the two-count indictment, alleging that Mumma had removed Gratton's body from where she had died — as well as her personal belongings and other evidence of her death — to avoid detection by investigators.
The grand jury indictment was presented to the district attorney's office on Monday, and a warrant was signed for Mumma's arrest. He was taken into custody in Summit County on Wednesday and has a $100,000 cash bond on the indictment, the district attorney's office said.
Denver7 requested and obtained a copy of the indictment.
"That's kind of bittersweet that my daughter is gone and he's here," Gratton's mother Cherilynne Gratton Camis told Denver7's Veronica Acosta on Wednesday evening. "... I am thankful for Jax's community, and I am thankful for the people that knew her and shared space with her, and I am thankful for the people that searched for her. I am thankful for the people that showed up week after week at city council and poured their heart out."
"I think tonight I will sleep more than two hours," she added. "I think I will not have nightmares. And I hope Jax is pleased with the outcome. She needed justice."
Gratton, 34, was last seen on the evening of April 15, 2025. Her roommate reported her missing and in the days after her disappearance, her loved ones searched the metro for her.
According to information from the indictment, Gratton and Mumma entered an office space at 9655 W. Colfax Avenue at 10:41 p.m. on April 15, 2025. A second man arrived at 12:14 a.m. and left the unit with Mumma at 1:43 a.m. At that point, Gratton was alone and asleep under the influence of drugs, the district attorney's office said.
Security cameras confirmed that nobody entered or exited the unit Gratton was inside until Mumma returned at 5:55 a.m. He stayed there until 6:57 a.m., when he moved his car to the north side of the building, according to the indictment. It alleges that he went into the building again and returned with trash bags, which he threw into a dumpster before leaving the area.
The second man has been cooperative with law enforcement and is not believed to have been criminally involved in this case.
Gratton's phone last pinged early on April 16, 2025, using an IP address associated with that office space on W. Colfax Avenue.
On May 29, 2025, officers with the Denver Police Department spoke with Mumma, who confirmed he had known Gratton for two or three years and that they had an intimate relationship. Mumma said he had picked Gratton up on April 15 and they had driven to his office at 9655 W. Colfax Avenue, Unit G, according to the indictment. The second man later joined them.
Mumma said Gratton was under the influence of gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, and took too much, passed out and started snoring. She was also making gurgling noises, he told authorities. At one point, she vomited and the two men rolled her on her side before they left the office.
He told police he didn't return until the following morning and said when he walked into the unit, Gratton was no longer there. She had left a bag and her shoes and he said he texted her about her belongings and then put them in his vehicle.
During the interview with police, Mumma said he should have called 911 when Gratton vomited. He also said he knew she was missing as of that point, and that he had not contacted police to share any information, according to the indictment.
The same day Mumma spoke with police — May 29, 2025 — authorities searched the unit but by that time, the furniture that had been there in April was removed and none of Gratton's personal belongings, including her cell phone, were recovered, the district attorney's office said.
Investigators tested the window screen in that unit for DNA and did not find Gratton's DNA profile or fingerprints on the window frame or window screen, the indictment reads.
On June 6, 2025, police in Lakewood announced that they were investigating a suspicious death after a bystander had discovered a body in a narrow space — about 4 feet wide — that is inaccessible to the public between the buildings of 9655 and 9699 W. Colfax Avenue.
"It is locked from both ends, requires a key for entry, and features a solid gate on the south side that completely obscures the area from view," the district attorney's office said.
On June 7, 2025, Gratton's mother, Cherilynne Gratton-Camis, announced on Facebook that the body was her daughter. Gratton-Camis said a detective was able to identify the body by the tattoos. At that point, Gratton had been missing for about two months.
Police continued to investigate this case. On June 10, 2025, the Lakewood Police Department ruled Gratton's death suspicious. This announcement spurred a wave of her loved ones to call for an independent oversight task force to look into the handling of her death investigation.
Denver
Jax Gratton's friends ask for independent task force to look into her death
On June 20, Mumma spoke with Lakewood police again. In that interview, he was "confronted with the possibility of throwing a body out of his office window," the indictment reads. He told police he and Gratton had talked about crawling out of his office window and jumping to the roof next door to smoke.
"He theorized that Jax may have tried to do so and fell," the indictment reads. "He told police that the window in the office was open throughout the night and did not have a window screen. There were no lighters or cigarettes found on or around Jax('s) body when it was located on June 6, 2025. Jax's roommate was interviewed and he did not know Jax to smoke cigarettes."
In August, Denver7 obtained Gratton's autopsy report, which revealed the coroner's findings about her death. The autopsy was completed on June 8. Her severely decomposed body was discovered under a second-story window of the Lakewood building, which was referred to as an apartment by the coroner's report though the district attorney's office called it an office building on Wednesday. The top of an air conditioning unit directly under that window was dented, the report reads, and Gratton's head was found resting on a cinder block supporting the air conditioning unit. The report read that because so much time had passed, officials were not able to establish a cause and manner of death.
Denver7 reported on these findings in August. Watch that below.
Gratton did not have any defensive wounds and there was no clear evidence of pressure on the neck leading to her death, but strangulation cannot be ruled out, the autopsy report reads. Aspiration could have also caused or contributed to her death, the report reads. While methamphetamine, THC, citalopram, and trazodone were detected in Gratton's system, a drug overdose could not be proven or ruled out, the report reads.
"The effects of postmortem decomposition have made it impossible to prove or rule out multiple possible mechanisms of death, including complications of drug use, accidental blunt force injuries, assault by another, or some other scenario," the autopsy report concluded.
As such, the cause and manner of death were listed as undetermined.
"Although I am happy that [Mumma] has been arrested, I am not satisfied," Gratton's longtime friend Brandy Carey told Denver7's Adria Iraheta on Thursday morning. "Many of us are not satisfied with the charges, especially based off of what the autopsy stated."
Gratton's family and friends have long been outspoken about the way the case was handled by Lakewood police and said they believe it affected this week's outcome.
"I think there is some relief, especially from the family, that this man is no longer on the streets and at the same time, they do not feel like justice has been served," said family friend Z Williams. "The community and the family will continue to fight for change, and we will make that happen. We have said that we are. We will not rest until there has been the changes that need to happen."
Mumma is being held at the Jefferson County Jail and is expected to make his first appearance on Friday.
