Man accused of deadly stabbing on RTD bus pleads not guilty by reason of insanity

DENVER (KDVR) — A man accused of killing two people on Sept. 14, 2023, along Federal Boulevard entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on Monday.

Vinchenzo Moscoso, 31, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder after deliberation and on Monday, while appearing for an arraignment hearing, Moscoso entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Police say Moscoso attacked a man on an RTD bus at about 5:10 a.m. that Thursday in 2023, seemingly out of the blue. Video obtained by FOX31 shows a man, later identified as Moscoso, boarded the bus at 32nd Avenue and Federal Boulevard after speaking with the driver. The video shows Moscoso walking to the back of the bus, pulling out a knife and stabbing a man in the neck.

Passengers can be seen on the footage reacting to the violence, and running toward the front of the bus. Moscoso can be seen exiting through the door in the middle of the bus.

Police later announced the victim on the bus was a 51-year-old man who died of the injury.

At about 9:50 a.m., several hours after the initial incident, Denver police responded to the area of 50th Avenue and Federal Boulevard where a woman was found dead at a bus stop near Regis University. Police arrested Moscoso several blocks away shortly after the woman's body was found. According to information provided to FOX31 by police, Moscoso had blood on his hands and a bloody knife in his pocket.

A judge set his bail at $5 million in September 2023. FOX31 learned in 2023 that Moscoso had been on parole for aggravated robbery at the time of the stabbings.

“To say that this individual should have never been out in the community is easy to say in hindsight,” legal analyst Chris Decker told FOX31 in 2023. “The problem is sorting out who we should release, when we should release them, what level of supervision, when do we decide to revoke people and send them back to prison. These are very difficult decisions.”

The plea of "not guilty by reason of insanity" is not commonly used, but Colorado residents might be familiar with the plea due to the Boulder King Soopers mass shooting case — the defendant in that case, Ahmad Alissa, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and faced years of evaluation before he stood trial in September 2024 and was found guilty by a jury.

Moscoso is scheduled to appear in court next on March 10 for a case review.