Tess Damm was sixteen years old when she murdered her mother. According to court documents Tess Damm and her boyfriend Bryan Grove planned the murder of the victim. Bryan Grove would fatally stab multiple times in her neck causing her death. This teen killer would ultimately plead guilty to second degree murder and sentenced to twenty three years in prison. Tess Damm was granted parole in 2018
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Tess Damm is up for parole for the first time since she was incarcerated as a 16-year-old for her role in the murder of her mother in Lafayette in 2007.
Tess Damm, now 26, has applied for discretionary parole after serving nearly 10 years of her 23-year prison sentence for directing her then-boyfriend to stab Linda Damm to death at the family’s home.
On Wednesday, Tess Damm will be interviewed by one member of Colorado’s parole board, and that member then will recommend either deferring Damm’s application for a specified time or releasing her to discretionary — as opposed to mandatory — parole.
“The person I am now at the age of 25 is drastically different,” Damm wrote to the parole board last April. “The past 10 years, thanks to the various treatment opportunities I was afforded, have opened my eyes to the person I used to be. I am able to see my thought process that led to my crime and I know that I will never find myself back at that place.”
Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett, who became chief prosecutor two years after the murder, said his office has not taken a position supporting or opposing Damm’s release.
“Prosecutors are not notified by the Department of Corrections when a defendant has an upcoming parole hearing, and the Tess Damm case is no different,” Garnett said Monday. “The DA’s office typically only considers writing a letter objecting to the possible parole of a defendant if requested by a victim or victim’s family, and we have not been asked to do so in this case.”
In her letter to the parole board, Tess Damm said that her first goals in community placement would be to find a job, manage her finances and get involved with a church.
“It is difficult to articulate the extent of my remorse for the choices I made that cost my mother her life, but the continual contact I have with my aunt, my mother’s sister, has above all taught me the beauty and healing that comes with forgiveness,” Tess Damm wrote. “I cannot go back and undo what was done, but I can have a successful life from here and bring honor to my mother through the choices and decisions I make every day for the rest of my life.”
According to an acceptance letter from Reintegration Ministries, a residential program in Denver formerly known as Inside/Out, Tess Damm would be responsible for monthly rent, participation in group and individual sessions, and weekly classes based on the Bible.
Because she was a teenager at the time of incarceration, Tess Damm would have access to help with basic life skills “that not every client requires” and assistance from one-on-one life coaching, mentorship and group counseling, according to the letter.
In February 2007, Bryan Grove stabbed Linda Damm 18 times in the neck at her Lafayette home. Grove, who was 17 at the time, was Tess Damm’s boyfriend. Police said Tess Damm plotted to kill her mother because of abuse and neglect.
The couple’s friends Jared Smith, then 16, and Jared Guy, then 18, accepted plea deals for their roles in covering up the homicide after it took place.
A year after the killing, Tess Damm pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 23 years in prison, with the first five years to be served at a juvenile facility.
She is currently housed at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility.
Grove was charged with first-degree murder in the killing. He also pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2008 and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
He is currently at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility, and will become eligible for parole in 2033, when he will be 44.
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Tess Damm Release
Tess Damm was released on parole after serving more than a decade in prison for directing her then-boyfriend to murder her mother in Lafayette in 2007.
Damm, 28, first applied for parole in 2018 after serving nearly 10 years of her 23-year prison sentence.
Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Annie Skinner said Damm was released on parole in April 2019.
In a letter to the parole board in 2018, Damm noted she was only a teen at the time of the murder.
“The person I am now at the age of 25 is drastically different,” Damm wrote to the parole board in 2018. “The past 10 years, thanks to the various treatment opportunities I was afforded, have opened my eyes to the person I used to be. I am able to see my thought process that led to my crime and I know that I will never find myself back at that place.”
In February 2007, Bryan Grove stabbed Linda Damm 18 times in the neck at her Lafayette home. Grove, who was 17 at the time, was Tess Damm’s boyfriend. Police said Tess Damm plotted to kill her mother because of abuse and neglect.
A year after the killing, Tess Damm pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 23 years in prison, with the first five years served at a juvenile facility.
Grove was charged with first-degree murder in the killing. He also pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2008 and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
He is currently at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Ordway, and will become eligible for parole in 2033, when he will be 44.
The couple’s friends Jared Smith, then 16, and Jared Guy, then 18, accepted plea deals for their roles in covering up the homicide after it took place
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Tess Damm Release
Tess Damm was released in 2018
