Dylan Redwine case: Friends recall Dylan’s last text messages
As Dylan Redwine flew to Durango for a court-ordered visit to his father, he sent a friend back home a picture of his plane with a two-word message: “What now?”
To the recipient, Joseph Ceballos, the text reflected Dylan’s dread at being made to go to Mark Redwine’s Vallecito-area home for Thanksgiving — which he said Dylan made clear to him at a sleepover in Colorado Springs the night before his trip.
“He really didn’t want to go. I could see fear inside his eyes,” Ceballos, who was 12 at the time, told a jury Tuesday.
Nearly a decade after Dylan’s November 2012 disappearance, the impressions and memories of five childhood friends took center stage in court as testimony began at Mark Redwine’s second-degree murder trial in Durango.
One by one, they described Dylan’s last known words via text messages they traded with him before he went missing, sometimes laughing or tearing up while looking at photographs they captured with their phones.
Attorneys on both sides scrambled to tease out support for clashing theories of how Dylan died and who, or what, was responsible — lending pivotal significance to adolescent banter that one witness called “dumb childlike things.” Throughout, the defendant’s attorneys pushed back at indications that Dylan was at odds with his father, which they call a fabrication.
In questioning Ceballos, for example, public defender John Moran suggested an alternate explanation for Dylan’s text message — that the boy was complaining about an earlier flight being canceled and apprehensive about what would happen next.
Ceballos later pushed back: “I think it was referring to: What do I do now? He was scared. That’s what I took it as: What now?”
Prosecutors said during opening statements Monday that Redwine, 59, killed the boy in a “violent rage,” potentially after Dylan confronted him with lurid photographs picturing the defendant committing a bizarre act with feces. The prosecution called it the latest flashpoint amid conflict born of Redwine’s contentious divorce and custody battle.
They accused the southwestern Colorado father of hiding Dylan’s remains along a secluded dirt road near his mountain home, saying he even went so far as to move Dylan’s skull to make it look like an animal was involved, which they say forensic science can prove.
Defense attorneys called it a “made-up story,” bolstered by shoddy investigative work and a “demand for a wrongful conviction.”
Redwine’s personal photographs are likewise a “made-up motive,” the defense said, accusing prosecutors of using shock value to turn the jury against him. Dylan had already discussed the photos with his father on a previous outing together, they said. They also suggested the boy was possibly attacked by an animal after sneaking out of his father’s house to see a different friend.
On Tuesday, the jury heard Dylan described as a friendly, outgoing boy who was quick to make friends, and loyal to them. He didn’t hesitate to offer words of comfort when necessary, but he was also a “prankster” with a rough-and-tumble side, they said.
“Dylan was a fiery kid with a temper,” said Amanda Saxton, 22, of Mosca. “He was loud. He was just an overall pretty fun, rowdy, short-tempered kid.”
Saxton, who as a 13-year-old called Dylan by a pet name, Kitty, broke into tears while reading a text message she sent to his phone nine days after his disappearance, knowing it wouldn’t arrive: “I’ve liked you forever,” she read in a halting voice. “Like, I love you … and it breaks my heart to know you’re gone.”
The disappearance came at a time of transition for Dylan. After growing up in southwestern Colorado, he moved with his mother to Colorado Springs in junior high, leaving behind a group of friends who formed tight bonds while riding bikes, staying up late at sleepovers and playing at the river in Bayfield.
After making new friends in Colorado Springs, Dylan was about to move again to Monument, uprooting him all over again, said his former girlfriend in Colorado Springs, Cristen Baird, now 22. The court-ordered visit came as he was trying to figure out his next steps, including whether he and Baird should break up, she said in tearful testimony.
On the night he arrived in Durango, Dylan canceled a plan to go to a sleepover with his friend Ryan Nava of Bayfield, saying that his father nixed the idea.
They agreed via text message to hang out bright and early the next morning. Dylan told him he would knock on the sliding glass door at his grandmother’s home at 6:30 a.m. — and call his friend “all day” if he didn’t answer, Nava testified.
“I set an alarm and woke up,” he recalled. “I expected him to be there. Or to wake up to him knocking on that sliding door.”
Prosecutors say Dylan was murdered in his home the previous night.
The jury also viewed surveillance footage of Dylan arriving at the Durango airport with his father and shopping at a WalMart after they left. Prosecutors previously emphasized their physical distance during those trips, saying it supported their theory of conflict between them. The videos are the last time Dylan was seen alive in public.
Redwine’s attorneys called the airport footage misleading, saying it doesn’t capture the father and son’s reunion. They also argue that it’s normal for adolescent boys to break off in a department store when shopping with their parents.
Testimony is expected to continue Wednesday morning. The trial is expected to last up to five weeks.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald 06-21-21-Durango- Mark Redwine, right, talks with John Moran who is on his defense team before opening remarks on Monday, June 21, 2021, at his trial in Durango Co., at the La Plata County Courthouse. Redwine is on trial for second degree murder and child abuse resulting in death of his son Dylan Redwine.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald 06-21-21-Durango- Mark Redwine listens during opening remarks on Monday, June 21, 2021, at his trial in Durango Co., at the La Plata County Courthouse.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald 06-21-21-Durango- Mark Redwine, center, stands as the jury enters the courtroom at the start of his trial on Monday, June 21, 2021, in Durango Colo., at the La Plata County Courthouse. Redwine is on trial for second degree murder and child abuse resulting in death of his son Dylan Redwine.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald 06-21-21-Durango- Jeffrey R. Wilson, chief judge of the 6th Judicial District, listens to prosecutor, Fred Johnson, before opening remarks of the Mark Redwine trial on Monday, June 21, 2021, in Durango Colo., at the La Plata County Courthouse. Redwine is on trial for second degree murder and child abuse resulting in death of his son Dylan Redwine.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald 06-21-21-Durango- Public Defender, John Moran, makes opening remarks to the jury in the Mark Redwine trial on Monday, June 21, 2021, in Durango Colo., at the La Plata County Courthouse. Redwine is on trial for second degree murder and child abuse resulting in death of his son Dylan Redwine.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald 06-21-21-Durango- Evidence is presented during opening remarks in the Mark Redwine trial on Monday, June 21, 2021, in Durango Colo., at the La Plata County Courthouse. Redwine is on trial for second degree murder and child abuse resulting in death of his son Dylan Redwine.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald 06-21-21-Durango- Evidence is presented during opening remarks in the Mark Redwine trial on Monday, June 21, 2021, in Durango Colo., at the La Plata County Courthouse. Redwine is on trial for second degree murder and child abuse resulting in death of his son Dylan Redwine.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald 06-21-21-Durango- Public Defender, John Moran, makes opening remarks to the jury in the Mark Redwine trial on Monday, June 21, 2021, in Durango Colo., at the La Plata County Courthouse. Redwine is on trial for second degree murder and child abuse resulting in death of his son Dylan Redwine.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald 06-21-21-Durango- Sixth Judicial District Attorney, Christian Champagne, listens on during opening remarks in the Mark Redwine trial on Monday, June 21, 2021, in Durango Colo., at the La Plata County Courthouse. Redwine is on trial for second degree murder and child abuse resulting in death of his son Dylan Redwine.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald 06-21-21-Durango- Prosecutor, Fred Johnson makes the teams opening remarks in the Mark Redwine trial on Monday, June 21, 2021, in Durango Colo., at the La Plata County Courthouse. Redwine is on trial for second degree murder and child abuse resulting in death of his son Dylan Redwine.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald 06-21-21-Durango- Evidence is presented during opening remarks in the Mark Redwine trial on Monday, June 21, 2021, in Durango Colo., at the La Plata County Courthouse. Redwine is on trial for second degree murder and child abuse resulting in death of his son Dylan Redwine.
Dylan Redwine’s mother, Elaine Hall, talks in her Monument, Colo. home Wednesday, August 19, 2015, about the news Wednesday that her son’s death has been ruled a homicide and that her ex-husband, Dylan’s father, Mark Redwine, has been named a person of interest in the homicide. In the background is a painting of Dylan painted by the mother of Elaine’s husband, Mike Hall. Photo by Mark Reis, The Gazette
Mark Redwine
A 2012 family photo of Dylan Redwine, 13. (Photo Courtesy of the Redwine family)
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