Masters Family Eagerly Awaits His Release

Tim Masters remains locked up at the state’s Buena Vista Correctional Complex but his family in Fort Collins is eagerly anticipating his release Tuesday.

Masters will likely be brought up from state prison on Monday his family said. His lawyers are set to visit him this weekend, bringing him clothes so he can take his first steps of freedom without his prison jumpsuit.Special prosecutors on Tuesday will move to have Masters’ 1999 murder conviction set aside and his sentence vacated. A judge is expected to grant the motion, releasing Masters on personal recognizance.

“We don’t want to see him in those orange suits anymore,” said Betty Schneider, Masters’ aunt. “He’s going to leave in real clothes.”

Prison workers on Friday evening hosted a party for Masters after Adams County District Attorney Don Quick announced he would seek to set aside his conviction for killing Peggy Hettrick in 1987, Schneider said.

“Isn’t that amazing?” she said Saturday morning.

Masters’ extensive and close-knit Front Range family was busily burning up the phone lines Friday evening and Saturday morning as they prepared for Masters’ release.

“Every member of the family has a spare room for Tim,” Schneider said. “I have his (old) clothes but I don’t know if they’ll even fit him. It’s been 10 years. We might have to go shopping.”

See www.coloradoan.com for updates and Sunday’s Coloradoan for full details.

The Coloradoan