Nicholas Jordan is a killer from Colorado who was convicted of the murders of two UCCS students in 2024. According to court documents Nicholas Jordan would fatally shoot Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, and Samuel Knopp, 24, inside of a dorm room at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Nicholas Jordan lawyers attempted to say the double murder was a result of self defense however the jury was not going for it
Nicholas Jordan would be found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole
Nicholas Jordan Case
The man accused of killing two people last year in a dorm room at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole Wednesday after five days of trial in the 4th Judicial District.
Nicholas Jordan, 25, was accused of shooting and killing Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, of Pueblo, and music student Samuel Knopp, 24, of Parker, in the early morning hours of Feb. 16, 2024, in a campus dormitory. Jordan and Knopp were roommates and students at UCCS; Montgomery was a visitor and not enrolled at UCCS.
The guilty verdict and sentence came down more than a year after the killings. Jordan turned down a November plea deal and chose to take the case to trial instead. The case saw delay after delay with Jordan needing to be restored to competency to aid in his defense. The last motion ahead of trial came only a few weeks before with the defense filing to delay. Judge David Shakes struck down the late-March motion
Jordan received two consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole for the murders of Knopp and Montgomery.
Final testimony and closing arguments wrapped up late Tuesday afternoon, with the jury sent home before beginning its final work. Deliberation started at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The jury deliberated for more than four and a half hours before unanimously finding Jordan guilty on two counts of murder in the first degree and one count of menacing that stemmed from the Jan. 15, 2024, death threat directed at Knopp.
Jurors had several choices when it came to the two murder charges. They could either find Jordan guilty of murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree or manslaughter.
Shortly after the verdict was read shortly after 1:30 p.m., victim statements were either played or read aloud ahead of sentencing. Montgomery’s older sister, Ryan Montgomery, recorded a statement in which she spoke heavily about the death of her sister and how it will impact Montgomery’s children for the rest of their lives. Montgomery was a single mother.
Ryan Montgomery’s significant other also wrote a statement that prosecutor Anthony Gioia read aloud.
Montgomery’s father, Race Montgomery, was the only one to speak himself in the courtroom Wednesday. He read his statement through tears as he spoke about the void his daughter’s death left in the family, spending the past year in “deep heartbreak.”
Jordan’s trial started April 7 with jury selection before heading into five days of witness testimony and evidence presentation. The prosecution called several witnesses to the stand, including detectives, forensic detectives, friends of the victims and even a professor from the university. The defense only called two witnesses — a Colorado Springs police officer and a UCCS sergeant.
The jury left off Tuesday with a few hours of closing arguments and rebuttal. The prosecution first went through requirements needed to charge someone with murder in the first degree and explained why the prosecution believed they proved every element. They also touched on the self defense argument, which the defense based their case on, and claimed the circumstances surrounding the murders did not corroborate with that defense.
Jordan’s counsel argued self defense until the end, alleging Knopp attacked Jordan with a baseball bat, prompting Jordan to turn to what the defense called “self preservation.”
After five days of being free from the handcuffs in the courtroom, law enforcement quickly placed Jordan back in them after the sentence was read. Jordan donned a black suit and tie, and appeared emotionless as Shakes read the verdict — only putting his head down during the victim statements.
Throughout the the trial, Jordan was seen with his head down on the table, especially as a two-hour interview with him and a detective played on the screen in front of him Monday.
Jordan will return to the Department of Corrections, where he will spend the rest of his life. The prosecution has 42 days to determine appropriate restitution for the victims.