University of Colorado student shot after wandering into stranger’s home pleads guilty to criminal trespassing

Zoey Ripple was shot in the early morning hours when she entered the Boulder home of Timothy Justice and Doreen Orion.
Could a date rape drug have played a part in the bizarre events leading up to the shooting of a University of Colorado dean’s list student who wandered drunk into a stranger’s home?
Zoey Ripple, 21, pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree criminal trespassing and received an 18-month deferred sentence for the May incident her lawyer now says could have involved a drug like Ambien, according to local reports.
Ripple was shot in the early morning hours of May 23 when she entered the Boulder home of Timothy Justice and Doreen Orion.
Despite warnings that they had a gun and multiple requests that she leave their home, Ripple remained inside, at one point even nearing their bed with a light, according to the Daily Camera.
When Ripple was six feet from him, Justice shot her.
He was not charged because the shooting fell within the parameters of the state’s "Make My Day” law, which permits certain legal immunities for those who defend themselves with force in their homes.
The alleged intruder, however, did not fare so well.
The bullet from that night in May remains lodged in Ripple’s side. She is faced with a deferred sentence in which her felony can only be stripped from her record if she does not get another conviction for the next 18 months and her lawyer says she has been unfairly covered in the media.
"She's been portrayed as this dumb drunk who wandered into someone's house," Lawyer Colette Cribari told reporters. "This is not who Zoey Ripple is."
The student’s uncharacteristic behavior may have resulted from date rape drugs, Cribari said.
“Her statements to the police officer were pretty clear and yet she has no recollection of it at all. And that kind of fits in with a date rape drug.”
For her part, Ripple has said that she no longer drinks and that she is trying to move past the incident.
"This is something that is going to follow me for the rest of my life and I need to continue to remind myself that this doesn't define me. I know who I am," she said.