DENVER — A man, charged with murder and attempted sexual assault of a Denver woman nearly 30 years after prosecutors said he committed the crime, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Wednesday.
Dawson was charged and convicted on two counts in the murder of Terri Turachack — murder after deliberation and felony murder. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for both counts, ordered to run concurrently. Restitution was also ordered in the amount of $4,334.67.
This was the mandatory sentence for Dawson's conviction. However, the Denver County District Court judge and prosecutors in this case emphasized the importance of Turachcak's family providing statements about the impact that this decades-long case had on them. Two of Turachack siblings and her youngest daughters spoke before the court Wednesday, describing her as gentle and giving before she who lost the opportunity to watch her three daughters and five grandchildren grow up.
"For the pain he has caused, he deserves to spend his life behind bars. May Terri rest in peace finally," one of Turachack's family members said Wednesday.
Turachack was 35 years old when she was found dead in her apartment on Oct. 5, 1996, along E. 17th Ave. between High and Race Streets. She had been strangled and suffered blows to her head, according to Dawson's arrest affidavit released by the Denver District Attorney’s Office in early 2023.
DNA taken the day of her murder was connected to Dawson on Aug. 8, 2004, when the Denver Police Crime Lab received a DNA match recovered from Turachak, according to the affidavit.
Investigators would later determine he was in custody at the Suwannee Correctional Institution in Florida, serving 25 years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in connection with a 2001 case there.
"But for our case, he would be out in society," the prosecution said Wednesday.
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Dawson was also 35 years old at the time of Turachack's murder, but it would take 27 years for prosecutors to file murder charges against him and he was extradited back to Colorado in February 2023 at 62 years old.
“We never forgot. We never gave up,” Terri’s brother, James Turachack, told Denver7 in 2023 after prosecutors announced Dawson was to be extradited to Colorado to face justice. "It becomes very real when they tell you he's being extradited."
Now that Dawson has been sentenced in this Colorado case, the judge discussed the expectation he would be extradited to California in the next 30 days for a case in that state.
Dawson did not speak at Wednesday's sentencing other than to acknowledge the judge informing of his right to make a statement. At the beginning of the hearing, Dawson's defense lawyer said he would exercise his right to remain silent amid plans to appeal, which regularly happens in cases where there was a guilty conviction.
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