A man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Friday after his first trial ended in a hung jury in March 2017.
Dante Rodriguez, 21, was sentenced to 48 years in prison, according to a statement from the Denver District Attorney’s Office. His second trial was scheduled to start Tuesday.
Rodriguez was 19 when he was arrested in connection with the shooting death of 26-year-old Donald Johnson near Sheridan Boulevard and Dartmouth Avenue. Nicholas Vandervoort, then 19, and Alexis Ellis, then 20, also were arrested.
Police claimed the three met with Johnson on the morning of Sept. 16, 2015, to pay him money that was owed, but shot and killed him instead.
Vandervoort, who was initially taken into custody in Louisiana and extradited back to Denver, has been charged with first-degree murder, according to the district attorney’s office. He is scheduled to appear for a status hearing on April 20.
Ellis was charged with one count of first-degree murder but pleaded guilty to one count of accessory to a crime in June 2016. She was sentenced to six years supervised probation.
Source : Denver Post
