A Boulder County triple murderer will have the opportunity to leave prison during his lifetime in part because of misconduct by a Colorado Bureau of Investigation analyst who intentionally deleted DNA data in his case, attorneys said in court Thursday. Garrett Coughlin, 31, pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder in the 2017 killings and was sentenced to 42 years in prison with seven years of pre-sentence credit, avoiding the mandatory life imprisonment that accompanies a first-degree murder conviction. Prosecutors said they offered the plea deal in part because of misconduct by former CBI scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods, who deleted DNA data in the case, and because of years of inaction by the agency’s leadership to correct the misconduct, which Woods’ peers repeatedly warned superiors about. “The CBI has proven to us that, as an agency, they have failed,” defense attorney Mary Mulligan said.