In 2008 dubious homebuilder Mark Strodtman had plans to develop several acres of property he owned near the Old Spanish National Historic Trail on Orchard Mesa. Residents there were up in arms, worried that the integrity of the trail would be compromised. Those neighbors can rest easy for now.

For the past two and half weeks, Strodtman has been tied up in a Greeley courtroom.

On Wednesday afternoon, he was convicted of all 23 counts against him: 11 counts of theft, 11 counts of forgery and one count of racketeering under the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act. The jury of eight women and four men took six and a half hours to deliver their verdicts.

“Justice has been done,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Christian Schulte after the verdict was announced.

Now, Strodtman, 52, is looking at spending the rest of his life in prison, given the number of charges. He is the first person in Weld County to be convicted under the Organized Crime Control statute.

His family, including his sister and two daughters, have sat diligently behind him throughout the trial. They had only one reaction — devastation — said his brother-in-law, Ted Espinoza of Cheyenne.

“They're pretty well crushed,” he said, declining to comment further.

Strodtman had sat with his attorney, former state public defender David Kaplan, listening one by one as former colleagues of his — testifying under immunity — detailed how Strodtman worked to inflate prices on his homes, gave buyers kickbacks to buy his homes in the Gateway Lakes subdivision and failed to document those kickbacks on closing paperwork. The charges were related to 11 sales in 2005 and 2006.

The investigation, according to the Weld District Attorney's Office, began with a tip from a local real estate agent. It was sent to the Weld District Court grand jury for an indictment, which was handed down in March 2008. Strodtman was arrested in September 2008 in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where he was thought to have fled, and where he had moved all of his money to complete a housing development there.

Wednesday's verdict was Strodtman's third felony conviction. He was convicted in 1986 of aiding and abetting in a second-degree arson and conspiracy to commit second-degree arson, in a case in Minnesota. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison and almost $30,000 in fines and restitution. Strodtman appealed the conviction but lost.

In previous hearings, Schulte said Strodtman also has a past conviction for insurance fraud.

Those convictions will likely be brought up at his sentencing hearing.

Impact of conviction locally

The convictions will prevent Strodtman from developing property he owned on Orchard Mesa.

A group of Mesa County residents were dismayed when they learned in 2008, that Strodtman planned to develop a subdivision on 17 of the 400 acres he owned near their Orchard Mesa neighborhood. The property is in the vicinity of the north branch of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail on Orchard Mesa and the neighbors were concerned about protecting the integrity of the historic trail.

The residents became even more alarmed when they learned that Strodtman was under investigation, and then was indicted for real estate schemes on the Front Range.

Over residents' objections, the Grand Junction City Council on June 30, 2008, unanimously moved to annex nearly 18 acres on Orchard Mesa, owned by Strodtman's company, The Shores LLC. The city also approved zoning to allow for two acres per home at 166 Edlun Road.

Matt Witt, owner of Denver-based Commercial Capital, the company who loaned Strodtman the money for the Mesa County land, said they are in the process of foreclosing the property.

“We'll foreclose to get the asset back so we can resell the asset,” Witt said. “We assume a buyer will try and continue his plans to follow that same path to develop it.”

“We'll fight it,” said Vicki Felmlee, who helped form the Orchard Mesa Neighbors in Action, a group committed to preserving the Old Spanish Trail and nearby Gunnison River Bluffs. “The property won't be easy to develop.”

There is no good access, the slopes are steep, and Mesa County and the Bureau of Land Management have said they will protect the property's easements, Felmlee said.

And “if someone comes in to do another ‘Strodtman' (scam) we will expose them. The neighbors are very organized,” Felmlee said.

“We're thankful to Weld County that they took (the charges) seriously.”

Free Press Staff Writer Sharon Sullivan contributed to this report.