CENTENNIAL - An Arapahoe County judge may decide as soon as this week whether a clerical error should prevent prosecutors from seeking death for an inmate accused of killing a witness.

Attorneys for Robert Keith Ray argued their case before District Judge Gerald J. Rafferty on Friday, at times criticizing District Attorney Carol Chambers, chief prosecutor for the 18th Judicial District, for naming the wrong man in a notice to seek the death penalty.

"I can't believe that Carol Chambers would not put those notices right before her eyes," said Ray's attorney, Hollis Whitson.

At issue is whether prosecutors failed to meet their filing deadline because of the error.

Records show that prosecutors filed two notices on Jan. 26, both of which listed Ray's alleged accomplice, Sir Mario Owens, as the defendant who would be executed if found guilty of the homicides of Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe.

The couple, who had recently gotten engaged, were gunned down June 20, 2005, a week before Marshall-Fields was to testify against Owens and Ray in the shooting death of 20-year-old Gregory Vann.

Ray, 21, has since been convicted of accessory to murder in the Vann case. Owens, 22, was convicted of first-degree murder.

Owens and Ray are now awaiting trial for the slayings of Marshall-Fields and Wolfe, a case for which Chambers said she would seek the death penalty.

But in Ray's case, his attorneys argue, the death penalty notice was not filed in time. Prosecutors entered a corrected notice naming Ray on Feb. 8, but state law requires notification within 60 days of arraignment.

For both Ray and Owens, the deadline was Jan. 26.

"Wishing it away doesn't make it so," Whitson said about the mistake.

Prosecutor Emily Warren said the error was made because the notice was "prepared through a cut and paste mechanism."

Still, she said, the original notice was filed on time, and she argued that Ray's defense attorneys should have known prosecutors wanted to execute their client because they cite his case number in their pleading.

"Everyone here is a reasonably intelligent person," she said. "We all know what was meant by the notice."

morenoi@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2895