July 24 update: At pre-trial, the jury trial was delayed until Dec. 5. Dates could be subject to change during a scheduling hearing in August.
The jury trial of 52-year-old Jimmy West, who is charged with the alleged murder and sex trafficking of 19-year-old Zaria Hardee in Boulder, is scheduled to begin Monday, July 21.
West was arrested on Jan. 30, 2025, following a roughly six-month investigation into Hardee’s death. Her body was discovered just over a year ago in the Goss Grove neighborhood, wrapped in a tent and tied to a bicycle trailer.
Read: Boulder police arrest suspect in the murder of 19-year-old Zaria Hardee
Police testified that West admitted to being with Hardee the night she disappeared, and that the trailer her body was found in belonged to him. Rope used to tie her body to the trailer matched rope found at West’s nearby camp, police said. An officer also testified that Hardee’s boyfriend, Nickolas Shepherd, told investigators he sold her to West in exchange for fentanyl the day she was last seen alive.
West pleaded not guilty at an April hearing. His attorney argued that the state failed to present a clear motive or enough evidence to support the charges.
The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office is also expected to file charges against Shepherd next week. Those details have not yet been made public.
Hardee’s family, who live in Wyoming, traveled to Colorado to attend the court proceedings this week and next. They’ve raised almost $2,700 through a GoFundMe page created after her death to help cover the cost of attending the hearings.
A pre-trial readiness conference is scheduled for Friday, July 18, to confirm that both sides are ready to proceed with the jury trial, which is expected to last at least a week.
It’s also possible that the defense will request a delay if a witness who has been difficult to contact remains unavailable. More information will be available after the July 18 pre-trial conference.