By admin 
An Alamosa judge Tuesday increased Barry Morphew’s bond to $10 million cash after he was recorded in an Aug. 26 hit-and-run crash in Denver that breached the conditions of his bond.
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In a stern rebuke as she assigned the marked increase, Twelfth Judicial District Judge Amanda Hopkins said Morphew “has shown time and again he has no respect for any order of this court and he is not going to comply with it if it is inconvenient to the lifestyle he wishes to live while he is out on bond.” Morphew’s bond was previously set at $3 million.
She added that if he is able to post bail, he will have to stay confined at home in the San Luis Valley on a GPS monitor unless he has a medical emergency.
Prosecutors asked for Barry Morphew’s bond to be increased after the murder defendant was arrested in Boulder on Sept. 3, a week after authorities say he was involved in the Denver hit-and-run.
Morphew faces a first-degree murder charge and is accused of killing his wife, Suzanne Morphew, who was reported missing on Mother’s Day 2020. A grand jury indicted him in June 2025, three years after the initial case against him was dropped because of prosecutorial issues with evidence.
Prosecutor Fred Johnson noted that once his office received complete GPS data from the private monitoring company for the week of the accident, Morphew worked for two days Monday and Tuesday, but after the Aug. 26 incident, on the following Thursday, Friday and Saturday, he made a series of visits to places in the posh Cherry Creek neighborhood including stops at a steakhouse, a hotel, a Whole Foods and a liquor store parking lot. He also went to a trailhead, Johnson noted. “With an indictment for murder sitting on all of our desks, he’s walking around doing whatever he wants in violation of the court’s bond conditions.”
Morphew was in court for the proceeding as were his two Denver attorneys. One of them, Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, argued that this was a traffic infraction which did not constitute a danger to the community.
“The case has been going on for six years and Mr. Morphew is still here,” Fisher-Byrialsen said. “There’s no fleeing for him. He wants his day in court. He wants this to be over. Traffic infractions don’t rise as a danger to the community.”
Both of Morphew’s daughters and several of Suzanne Morphew’s relatives, including a sister and a brother, were listening to the Alamosa court proceedings virtually.
During the hearing, prosecutors admitted that neither the Colorado judicial system nor prosecutors knew that the incident had occurred until a local news station aired footage of a man who was later confirmed to be Barry Morphew driving aggressively and then striking two vehicles with his 2013 Ford truck. When a driver threatened to call police, Morphew is seen on the recording driving away, almost hitting a third vehicle.
He was later arrested in Boulder and was ordered by a judge to be brought to the Alamosa County jail where Sheriff Robert Jackson confirmed he remains.
Morphew, 58, had been out of jail and on an ankle monitor since January on $3 million bond after being charged with murder in his wife’s death.
Hopkins granted Morphew’s bond with strict stipulations that he could only leave home for medical appointments or to meet with his attorneys. Later, he was given an exception for work.
Prosecutors argued in recent court documents that it “appears that wide latitude in this ‘work’ exception has resulted in the Defendant allegedly committing criminal conduct.”
Prosecutors later received the GPS data from Recovery Monitoring Solutions, a private company, which showed that earlier on the day of the crash, Morphew had also driven to the airport. In the motion, prosecutors noted that Morphew’s attorneys informed them that Morphew was not working at DIA, and was possibly picking up one of his daughters.
In response to an inquiry from The Colorado Sun, RMS said that when information comes in that “indicates a reportable event, RMS provides information to the supervising authority (in this case, the supervising authority is the court system) in accordance with the applicable court order, agency protocol, or service agreement.” Further, RMS said that it’s the supervising authority’s responsibility to decide whether a violation has occurred.
However, Hopkins expressed disappointment with RMS. Though the company was what she referred to as “generally compliant,” she realized through the accident that RMS’ “conditions required almost no restriction at all.”
She learned that Morphew’s conditions were so broad that he could be away from home most days from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and could be anywhere in Denver, Castle Rock or Parker for work. “No one checked on him. No one verified where he was. No one asked any questions about what he was doing with his time. If he decided to go outside the area, the company would not really know.”
Hopkins added that If RMS received an alert, instead of calling the prosecution or police, the company would call Morphew and advise him to return to the “zone.”
On the other hand, Boulder defense attorney Mary Claire Mulligan said that despite the high profile nature of the Morphew case, the rules may have been loosely defined. “If someone is following the rules and doing well, they may get leeway,” said Mulligan, who is not involved in the case.
What happened in the hit-and-run
According to a court order, a driver reported that Morphew was behaving in an aggressive manner before he hit two vehicles Aug. 26 at the intersection of East Eighth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. The driver recorded the interaction with Morphew on her cellphone camera.
During the recorded interaction, Morphew admitted that he had no insurance. When the driver threatened to call police, he fled.
Mulligan says the video is problematic for Morphew because “it appears to show him doing something that would automatically be a bond violation. If you are where you shouldn’t be, that’s a bond violation.”
Suzanne Morphew, a 49-year-old mother of two, disappeared from the family home Maysville, Colorado near Salida, on Mother’s Day weekend 2020. Her remains were not found until September of 2023, three years and four months after she went missing.
Morphew has denied killing her, speculating that she was possibly kidnapped and murdered. He has been arrested twice in her murder. Prosecutors dismissed the case on the eve of the first trial in April 2022 due to lack of a body.
Last Friday’s arrest for bond violations was the third time Barry Morphew has been arrested since his wife’s disappearance.
Prosecutors believe Morphew is a flight risk. Johnson even noted Tuesday that this could very well be the most important moment in a six-year-old case that has already seen many twists and turns. “We are concerned that he’s just demonstrated exactly what he’s going to do when push comes to shove,” Johnson said.
Since Morphew used a bail bondsman when he was released the first time, he probably paid 10% of the $3 million bond — $300,000. His attorneys are funded by the Alternate Defense Council, meaning the state of Colorado is paying for his legal defense because he is deemed indigent.