University of Colorado asks state judge to block suit from student housed with dorm murderer

A communications student sued the University of Colorado Colorado Springs for negligence after one of his dormmates murdered the other in 2024.COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CN) — The University of Colorado Colorado Springs on Monday asked a state judge to grant it immunity from lawsuits filed by the mother of a woman slain in a dorm and the murderer’s surviving dormmate.“Plaintiffs want to conduct this with the benefit of hindsight,” said special assistant attorney general Megan Clark. “Evidence will show defendants were acting, but it’s with the benefit of hindsight that plaintiffs say they didn’t do enough.”In fall 2023, Giancarlo Argueta shared a dorm suite at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs with Nicholas Jordan, 25, and Samuel Knopp, 24. Within the first week, Argueta and Knopp confronted Jordan about his pot smoke and overflowing trash.After dropping out of school, Jordan returned to the dorm early on Feb. 16, 2024, and fatally shot Knopp and Knopp’s friend, 26-year-old Celie Rain Montgomery, who was staying overnight but was not a student.Montgomery left behind two children, ages 10 and 8.After a jury convicted Jordan of the two murders, a Colorado Springs judge sentenced him last year to two consecutive life terms.On behalf of her daughter, Melody Montgomery sued the university on July 16, 2025, asserting claims of willful and wanton conduct, negligence and wrongful death. Argueta, who shared the dorm pod with Knopp and Jordan, filed a separate suit in January.The university moved to dismiss both cases under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act. This week’s four-day Trinity hearing will determine whether the university and several officials, including the dean of students and campus police chief, can face the civil claims.Months before the shootings, Jordan was evicted from an off-campus apartment “due to him smoking marijuana, trying to sell drugs and verbally harassing staff and residents,” according to Montgomery’s complaint. The university then granted him “emergency placement” on Nov. 2, 2023, placing him in the pod with Knopp and Argueta.During the four months Jordan lived in the pod, Argueta filed several complaints to the dorm’s resident adviser over pot smoke, trash piles and overflowing toilets. Campus police also received complaints that Jordan harassed female students and sold drugs. At one point, Jordan himself requested a single room because of “a bad roommate problem.”A month before the shootings, Argueta told his resident adviser Jordan threatened to kill him and Knopp if they “snitched” on him.“This hearing is about a choice, not about hindsight,” argued attorney Jessica McBryant, who represents Montgomery.“The failure is not that no one knew, it’s that the team built to monitor knew and chose not to act,” said McBryant, who practices with Ramos Law in Northglenn, Colorado. “We ask the court to find the government is not immune from its conduct.”Argueta is represented by Jordan McAdams at McDivitt Law in Denver.As the first witness to testify during Monday’s hearing, Argueta recalled his efforts to report Jordan’s infractions while attempting to obtain new housing.“He was a strange and weird man,” Agudelo said. “Having met him, I did not feel comfortable, I did not think he was a good person.”Agudelo said he didn’t think campus police took it seriously when he reported Jordan’s death threat on January 15, 2024. Agudelo said he was worried when he learned campus police interviewed Jordan about the threat, because it revealed he had snitched.Fourth Judicial District Judge Jennifer Viehman, appointed by Democratic Governor Jared Polis, is presiding over the hearing, which is scheduled to continue through this week.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads