GRAND JUNCTION — Robert Dewey, imprisoned for nearly 18 years for a crime he did not commit, has been ordered released, cleared by DNA evidence that points the finger at a new suspect in the rape and murder of a Palisade woman in 1994.

“I find that Mr. Dewey is factually innocent of the crimes of which he was accused of in this case,” the judge said, noting Dewey had spent more the 6,000 days behind bars. “Mr. Dewey is now again a free man.”

Seated at a table in a blue shirt, his hair in long braids, Dewey declined to speak during the crowded hearing.

“It takes real character to stand up and say we made a mistake 17 years ago,” Dewey’s post-conviction lawyer Danyel Joffe said as she asked a Mesa County judge for her client’s exoneration today.

Prosecutors re-examined evidence found in 19-year-old Jacie Taylor’s apartment after her death and with new technology, lifted a full DNA profile from semen found on a blanket.

They believe it matches that of Douglas Thames, who is currently serving life for the high-profile 1989 rape and strangulation of Susan Doll in Fort Collins.

Dewey, who has served nearly 18 years of a life sentence in state prison, is expected to walk free today after a 3:30 p.m. court hearing.

Defense attorney Steve Laiche described Dewey as “serene and insightful.”

“I am just extremely impressed at how well he’s handling this. He is also understandably concerned about being taken out of society for 20 years,” said Laiche, who represented Dewey in 1996. “I am concerned about what happens to him next.”

Joffe handled Dewey’s post-conviction case, ultimately securing his pending release.

She said the Innocence Project of New York is supplying Dewey with a social worker to help him re-integrate into a society that passed him by long ago.

Dewey plans to stay a friend until he gets onto his feet, and a lawsuit against law enforcement involved in his case is likely, Joffe said.

“Mr. Dewey’s case seemed to be one where someone was convicted because a jury wanted to blame someone,” Joffe said at a press conference this morning. “How do you set a price on 18 years of someone’s life? It’s something we’re going to look at down the road.”

Unlike some about half of U.S. states, Colorado does not have a fund to compensate wrongfully convicted men and women who are later released.

After DNA evidence freed Timothy Masters in 2008, settlements with the city of Fort Collins and Larimer County left him with $10 million. Masters had served a decade in prison.

Prosecutors said at the time of Dewey’s trial that they faced problems with poor evidence handling by Palisade police officers, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger lauded those law enforcement agencies for pulling together to thoroughly re-investigate the Taylor’s death and free Dewey.

“This office prosecuted the best available suspect with the best available evidence,” Hautzinger said. “Thank God we are able to be here today to release an innocent man.”

One inconsistency in the evidence that was never resolved until now: A semen stain on Taylor’s blanket that didn’t match Dewey.

Authorities believe Thames killed Taylor in much the same way he killed Doll in 1989.

Both women were strangled — Taylor with a leash, Doll with a telephone cord — raped and beaten. The culprit left semen at both crime scenes.

Thames moved from Fort Collins to Grand Junction around 1990, after Doll’s death.

A DNA profile of material found in Taylor’s apartment was uploaded to the federal CODIS database. Based on that sample, authorities now believe it was Thames who killed Taylor in 1994.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit issued this month, Thames briefly lived in Taylor’s building, but did not appear affiliated with her group of friends.

Authorities only linked Thames to Doll’s death in 1995, after a stash of Doll’s underwear — complete with Thames’ DNA — was found stashed in the duct work of one of his former homes.

An ex-girlfriend and Thames’ younger brother told Fort Collins police that Thames — 16 at the time of Doll’s murder — had bragged about breaking into women’s homes “to see if (he) can get away with it.”

They didn’t believe him when he said he’d killed a woman.

“My brother said that he broke someone’s neck,” Keith Thames told police in a written statement. “He said he broke into her house, then she woke up and saw him. She grabbed for the phone. He got scared and grabbed her.”

Because Thames was a minor at the time of the crime, he was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole in 2035.

Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com