Colorado stadium worker sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting co-worker
Javon Price, 25, received life in prison without the possibility of parole from a Denver district court judge on Wednesday. A trial jury convicted Price in May of 1st Degree Murder and 2nd Degree Assault. The judge added another 16 years to the life sentence for the assault charge. That count stemmed from a passer-by's injuries suffered during the fatal shooting.
Javon Price following his arrest in August 2021.
Denver District Attorney's Office
Price, then 21, shot and killed 41-year-old Gregory Hopkins outside Coors Field on Aug. 6, 2021, according to case documents.
Another employee told Denver Police Department investigators that Hopkins argued with two other men prior to the baseball game that day. No fans were present at the time, that employee said, and the issue between the men was a woman.
Three people stand on a concrete staircase outside Coors Field moments before Gregory Hopkins, a concession worker leaving work, was fatally shot by a co-worker on Aug. 6, 2021. In another surveillance images taken from Coors Field security cameras earlier that day, Javon Price is seen arriving at the stadium. Price was sentenced to life in prison last week for Hopkins's murder.
Denver Police Department
Hopkins continued working his shift on the third concourse. He was confronted by two men at an employee exit near 22nd Avenue and Wazee Street. Detectives viewed recorded video from a stadium security camera which showed Hopkins arguing at the top of a set of concrete steps with a man in all-black clothing. A second man wearing black pants and a gray hoodie walked up to the pair and shot Hopkins. Hopkins, as described by detectives, ran down the stairs as the second man continued firing gunshots at him. Hopkins dropped his backpack and fell to the ground during his descent. The second man then ran down the stairs and fired another four to five more rounds at Hopkins from approximately five feet away.
Detectives checked video recordings from before the game and Aramark employee check-in records, and concluded Price was the second man in the gray hoodie.
"This case is yet another example of the tragic consequences that often result when people try to settle arguments with guns," Denver District Attorney John Walsh stated after Price's conviction. " As a result of this verdict, Javon Price will pay a significant price for his actions, as he should."
Denver PD arrested a second man for Hopkins's murder in the days after the shooting: Rayvell Powell, who was 30 at the time. Four months after his arrest, Powell was released and the charges against him dismissed.
However, a new case against Powell was filed during Price's trial in May. Matt Jablow, a spokesman for the Denver District Attorney's Office, told CBS Colorado the new case is "based on new evidence against Powell. Not evidence from the trial."
Documents are presently sealed in the Powell case. He was arrested June 11 but no hearings are scheduled in the matter. Jablow said investigators are working on finding more evidence in the Powell case.
Treneil McNeal after his arrest in 2021 (left) and his current profile with the Colorado state prison system.
Denver District Attorney's Office/Colorado Department of Correction.
Teacia Lovett, the mother of two of Hopkins's children, confirmed that Powell and Hopkins argued over another woman, also a Coors Field concession worker, who was "messing around" with both men.
Powell, she told CBS Colorado, asked a third man to bring a gun to Coors Field that night. That man, Treneil McNeal, provided Price the handgun which Price used to shoot Hopkins. DPD detectives were were able to see the exchange in the view of another Coors Field security camera moments before the shooting, according to Price's arrest affidavit.
McNeil was sentenced to 40 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections for his role in the murder in September 2023. He received an additional 45 years for firing more than 20 rounds toward SWAT officers during his arrest.
Gregory Hopkins in a photo taken from his online obituary.
Lenwood Jones Funeral Home
Lovett said Price and Hopkins were mere acquaintances. Both men had children on the way, she added.
"3 years now.. Jays (sic) taller than you," Lovett wrote to Hopkins last year on his obituary page. "[T]ime definitely has not stood still as it doesn't for anyone... but even 3 years ago today our life was the same because we hadn't found out yet. And now nothing is the same. I don't know if you would be there but I get so angry when dads pick their kids up from football camp and it's just me picking Jay up. Like I said I don't know if you would be there but it's the fact that you can't and won't ever be able to. I hate it and I hate this world for it... everything and I mean everything he does is for you. At least it drives him to be accomplished and better... please watch out for these boys because this world sucks more and more everyday. And I can't do this particular thing again... we miss you!!!"
Aramark Sports + Entertainment is the contracted company which handles food and beverage services at Coors Field and Empower Field. The employees involved in the shooting were temporary workers provided to Aramark by other staffing companies, according to Price's affidavit.
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