A Westcliffe man convicted of shooting four neighbors during a long-running dispute over a driveway was sentenced to three life terms in prison, plus decades more, for killing an elderly couple and a friend and seriously wounding a fourth person, authorities said.
The sentence closes a major chapter in a case that shook a quiet mountain community in Custer County after the Nov. 20, 2023, gunfire erupted during an effort to settle a property-line argument. Prosecutors said the victims had brought a surveyor to measure the land and asked another couple to stand by as witnesses because they feared the dispute would turn violent. The only survivor later testified that the shooter fired at the group “like we were tin cans,” describing a burst of shots that left three people dead on the ground and her badly hurt as she called for help.
District Court Judge Lauren Swan sentenced Hamne Clark, 47, on Feb. 20 after a jury found him guilty the day before of three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Beth Wade Geers, 73; her husband, Robert Geers, 63; and their friend, James Daulton, 58. The judge ordered the life sentences to be served consecutively and added a 48-year sentence for attempted murder in the shooting of Patty Daulton, authorities said. Court records and local reporting also described additional time tied to felony menacing with a firearm, while an assault sentence was set to run concurrently.
The shootings happened in a remote neighborhood outside Westcliffe, near an address on Rocky Ridge Road roughly 8 miles northeast of town, investigators said. Prosecutors told jurors the conflict centered on who owned a strip of land used as part of the Geers’ driveway, and that the couple hired a surveyor to establish the correct boundary. William Bechaver, the surveyor, testified that he was at the property working with the Geers while James and Patty Daulton stood nearby after a deputy who had planned to attend was called away. Bechaver said a man emerged from the trees and spoke with the group before walking away. Robert Geers warned him not to trespass while hunting, Bechaver testified, and the man replied, “I only hunt lying sons of b—es,” then shot Robert Geers in the chest.
Patty Daulton told the court that after the first shot, Clark fired rapidly at the rest of the people on scene. “He just shot us like we were tin cans,” she said, describing the sound and speed of the rifle fire. Prosecutors said she survived despite serious injuries and called 911 in the minutes after the shooting. Investigators arriving at the scene found the three victims dead and Patty Daulton wounded, according to testimony and court summaries presented during the trial. Prosecutors also pointed jurors to recordings and video from earlier contacts with law enforcement in which Robert Geers said he feared Clark and believed the dispute would not be addressed until, as he put it, his “cold, dead body” was found.
The defense argued that Clark and the woman he lived with at the time, Nancy Medina-Kochis, also felt threatened and believed neighbors were shooting near their property to intimidate them. A friend, Doug Nelson, testified that he was on the phone with Medina-Kochis around 12:59 p.m., the time prosecutors said the shooting occurred, and he heard “popping sounds.” Nelson said he then heard Clark open a door and say, “Someone is shooting at me,” and Nelson told them to run. Defense lawyers challenged the investigation and pressed jurors to question how the shooter was identified and whether the evidence ruled out other possibilities. Prosecutors countered that the eyewitness testimony and the case timeline showed Clark was the gunman.
Authorities said Clark and Medina-Kochis left the area shortly after the shooting and were arrested in New Mexico after a multiagency search. Investigators said the manhunt lasted about 24 hours before they were taken into custody out of state. In court, prosecutors described the flight as part of the case’s evidence trail, while defense lawyers framed the couple’s actions as fear-driven. Either way, the chase became a defining part of the early investigation, as deputies and state agencies issued alerts and tracked movements across state lines before the arrests were announced.
Medina-Kochis, 52, faces separate charges in the case. Prosecutors have said she was charged with five counts of being an accessory to a crime, and court schedules cited in local reporting list her jury trial for April. The charges against her are lower-level felonies than the murder counts Clark faced, and authorities have not said she fired a weapon. Her case is expected to focus on what she knew before the shooting, what she did during the minutes when the violence unfolded, and how she responded during the flight from Colorado.
The killings also exposed how quickly a property dispute can escalate in a rural area where neighbors may be separated by long driveways and thick tree cover. Trial testimony and earlier law enforcement contacts described months of tension over boundary lines, hunting access, and accusations tied to the driveway. Prosecutors said the Geers sought a survey to settle the issue with records rather than confrontation, and that they wanted witnesses present because they feared the conflict had reached a dangerous point. The defense highlighted what it called gaps in the investigation and argued that the state did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury rejected that argument and convicted Clark on all counts.
After sentencing, relatives of the victims described lasting grief and said the verdict did not undo the loss of loved ones who had expected a routine afternoon focused on measuring property lines. Patty Daulton’s testimony remained central to the case, giving jurors a survivor’s account of the gunfire and its aftermath. Prosecutors said the sentence ensures Clark will not be released, while the court continues to schedule the next steps for the remaining defendant in the case.
Clark remains in custody following the Feb. 20 sentencing, and prosecutors said the case will continue in April with proceedings for Medina-Kochis unless the schedule changes. Authorities have said no further suspects are being sought in the shootings, and the convictions stand as the legal outcome for the killings in the Westcliffe neighborhood.
Author note: Last updated February 24, 2026.