After a week-long trial, a Boulder County jury has found Jimmy West, 53, guilty of second-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Zaria Hardee, whose body was found in the Goss Grove neighborhood in July 2024. He was found not guilty of related sex-trafficking charges.
West was sentenced to 96 years in the Department of Corrections, followed by five years of mandatory parole. He was arrested in connection to Hardee’s murder on Jan. 30 and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The prosecution’s argument relied on physical evidence, witness statements and inconsistencies in West’s account.
“Jimmy West is the best evidence against Jimmy West,” aileen Van Nice, chief trial deputy with the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office, argued during closing arguments last week. “Because everything he tells you is different from everybody else, but the pieces that he gives you that are true undermine everything else.”
west was the last known person to be with Hardee before her death. Investigators reported that Hardee’s body was found in West’s bike trailer, and that tent fabric, rope and tape used to wrap and bind Hardee’s body were identical to materials found in West’s camp. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation also found his DNA on the tent material.
West also described the outfit she was found in “nearly perfectly,” despite the fact that video surveillance showed her wearing something different on the last day she was seen alive.
According to a Boulder Police affidavit, Hardee’s boyfriend, Nickolas Shepherd, told police he “sold” Hardee to West, likely for drugs. On July 10, the last day Hardee was seen alive, she was escorted by her friend, Karrine “Kiki” Willis, to West’s camp just north of 17th Street. West told police he had “a little bit of sex” with Hardee after she was taken to his camp.
Hardee’s body was found on July 14, with her mouth taped and a motorcycle cover wrapped around her head. She likely died of blunt force head injuries and asphyxiation.
Although West was charged with first-degree murder and human trafficking, the jury found him guilty of second-degree murder. First-degree murder generally requires either premeditation or knowingly creating a “grave risk of death” to other people, under circumstances that demonstrate an “extreme indifference to the value of human life generally.”
The 2024 homeless memorial, where Zaria Hardee was remembered. Credit: John Herrick
west’s defense argued that the murder could have inst
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