JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — Yvonne “Missy” Woods, the former Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) forensic scientist charged with manipulating evidence for years, pleaded guilty Tuesday to four counts in Jefferson County Court.
- Watch News5's coverage of the guilty plea below:
Tuesday's plea reverses course from Woods' original "not guilty plea" in February, following multiple delays in the case.
The charges she ultimately pleaded guilty to on Tuesday include cybercrime, perjury, attempting to influence a public servant, and forgery. The other 100 remaining counts were dismissed as part of a plea agreement between her defense attorneys and prosecutors.
For the first count of cybercrime, she will be sentenced to between eight and 16 years in prison. The other counts will come with prison sentences that will be served concurrently with the first count. She will be sentenced at 8:30 a.m. on September 8.
Woods, 65, was charged with a total of 102 felonies: 52 counts of forgery, 48 counts of attempting to influence a public servant, and one count each of perjury and cybercrime, for alleged misconduct that impacted more than 1,000 cases between 2008 and 2023.
Woods was first charged in January 2025, following a CBI announcement in late 2023 that she was no longer employed at the agency and was facing a criminal investigation after anomalies in her work were discovered. Woods worked for CBI for 29 years.
Since her arrest, one conviction in a 1994 Boulder murder case was thrown out due to flawed DNA testing by Woods. Michael Clark, who had been convicted in 2012 and was serving a life sentence, was released from prison in April 2025.
Clark is likely to be retried, Scripps News Denver reported in September 2025.
Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office released the following statement regarding the guilty plea:
Today, Ms. Woods accepted responsibility not only for individual acts of misconduct but for the full scope of criminal conduct that spanned decades. Despite Colorado law allowing for these offenses to be probation eligible, this disposition guarantees a prison sentence and eliminates any possibility of a community-based sentence. Securing a term of imprisonment, protecting the interests of the community, and our shared expectations of integrity in the justice system is reflected in this resolution.
One of the cases Woods is accused of mishandling is the murder of Roger Dean nearly 40 years ago.
The man accused of murdering Dean received a lighter sentence than typical, and the district attorney said Woods' alleged mishandling of DNA was to blame for the lesser penalty.
Dean's daughter, Tamara Harney, told Scripps News Denver earlier this year that she wants to see justice in the case so she can move forward.
“I'm just ready to get things moving. Just let's get it on, you know, get it moving forward, get it finished, and then finally put this to bed,” said Harney. “[Woods] needs to realize the impact that she had on so many people by her actions.”
The state has allocated more than $7 million to deal with the fallout from the case. CBI officials have said the case has created severe backlogs in both DNA evidence cases and sexual assault tests are experiencing delays.
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