KEY POINTS
- The shooter and a fellow student killed one teenager and injured eight others at a Denver, Colorado high school in 2019
- The 20-year-old was convicted in June of all 46 charges against him, including first-degree murder
- He was also given multiple, 48-year sentences for attempted murder and extreme indifference for the surviving victims
A former high school student was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday for a 2019 shooting inside a Denver, Colorado high school that killed one teenager and injured eight others.
District Court Judge Theresa Slade also gave Devon Erickson, now 20, multiple, 48-year sentences for attempted murder and extreme indifference for the surviving victims, The Hill reported.
Erickson, along with another student named Alec McKinney, reportedly fired multiple rounds into a classroom at STEM School Highlands Ranch on May 7, 2019, prosecutors said. They killed Kendrick Castillo, an 18-year-old senior who tried to stop the attack, and left eight other students injured.
Survivors of the shooting incident, teachers and family members gave testimonies in court before Erickson's sentence was handed down, 9 News reported. Among them was the deceased's mother, Maria Castillo, who asked the judge to give Erickson the maximum punishment for the death of her son.
“I have been here for every proceeding in this courtroom and looking at this demonic killer, and he shows no remorse,” she was quoted as saying by the outlet. “He deserves no mercy. So today, your honor, I ask you for the maximum sentence for this evil killer.”
Erickson was convicted in June of all 46 charges against him, including first-degree murder, according to the Associated Press. He faced a mandatory life sentence since he was already 18 at the time of the shooting.
McKinney was sentenced to life in prison last year. He was 16 at the time of the attack and could become eligible for parole after about 20 years under a program for juvenile offenders.
According to prosecutors, Erickson and McKinney strategically carried out the shooting. They targeted a classroom of students sitting in the dark as they watched a movie and entered through different doors to make sure they could maximize the number of people they could kill, prosecutors said.
Their plan involved a “victim-hero” angle in which McKinney would either kill himself or be killed by Erickson, according to prosecutors.
The plan went haywire when Erickson's gun jammed after he fired multiple times. This allowed Castillo and two other students, Joshua Jones and Brendan Bialy, to overpower Erickson, while McKinney was apprehended by a school security guard.
Representation. A gavel. Photo: Pixabay
