It is a horror story that all witnesses of a criminal case fear: criminals discover your identity and murder you because you have tried to do what was right and wrong. 39 to help the police solve a crime.

But for the 48-year-old David Henderson's family, this horror story is further compounded by those who leaked revealing information to his Denver killers. Local court officials wrongly published secret documents identifying Henderson's occupation and other important clues regarding a team of mother and son thieves that he had informed police detectives, according to A criminal affidavit issued in Arapahoe County, Colorado on Thursday.

On October 12, 2016, Henderson, a car mechanic, was shot dead 10 times and was killed outside the Denver home where he lived with his mother. Prosecutors said the motive for the assassination was Henderson's cooperation with detectives in describing the details surrounding a robbery at a marijuana store two months earlier.

"It's the nightmare scenario," said Arapahoe County General Counsel George Brauchler. The court system has taken the necessary steps and closed a loophole to ensure criminals do not receive such documents.

The thieves who obtained court documents indicate that Terance Black, 26, and her mother, Tina Black, 51, were sentenced to life without parole on Thursday. But the Henderson family still feels the pain of the court's mistake.

Henderson's sister said her family was struggling to recover. She described her brother as an accommodating man, gifted for auto repairs and fearing reprisals, but he still wanted to help, said Karen Henderson.

"He did not have adequate protection," she said. "It's just a pity that his life was taken for trying to do the right thing."

Prosecutors praised Henderson's intentions.

"David Henderson is a person to congratulate for his courage and courage to come forward and do the necessary," Brauchler said before the sentencing on Thursday.

Henderson had contacted the police to report a suspicious activity of Tina Black who had hired her to perform mechanical work on her cars.

Police linked Henderson's information to the robbery at the Denver marijuana store in August 2016. Prosecutors said Terance Black had learned Henderson's cooperation with the police, while the police said they had been involved in the robbery. he was on bail for robbery.

The Denver Post reported that discovery documents, which provided evidence in the robbery case, had been sent wrongly to a person from the investigation. This person called Terance Black and told him that "the mechanic" was talking to the police, "the Post reported.

Terance Black is quoted in the affidavit, claiming that he "got the (court papers) from the guy who says … about the thief."

Terance Black told a friend that he had read court documents identifying Henderson as a witness and that he had "run his mouth." Terance Black said he had read half of it and that Mr. Henderson's name was "everywhere, saying" according to the criminal affidavit.

Terance Black said to the knowledge that if Henderson did not show up to testify, "they had no cause," says the affidavit. "They could not pursue them because Mr. Henderson was the" witness "." Black also said, "We will have to kill him."

Terance and Tina Black were heard at one point saying that Henderson "had been sniffing and sneaks had stitches," says the affidavit.

A spokesman for the Colorado court system said the cause of the misleading documents had been corrected this summer after Brauchler's office warned the administrators.

Spokesman Rob McCallum said that in several districts, warrants signed by judges were automatically handed over to all parties involved in a case, including defendants and witnesses.

The officials estimated that 1,500 cases were affected. Officials said they were not aware of any other cases of defendants accused of targeting or threatening witnesses on the basis of court records disclosed in error.

The updated system, which was put in place in August, requires judges to choose precisely who will receive these records, McCallum said.

Contribution: Associated Press

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