A Denver man who shot and killed his neighbor following a drunken argument has been sentenced to 32 years in prison.
Aaron Espinosa, 26, in February pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, heat of passion.
Espinosa had originally been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 35-year-old Hugo Ramirez, who lived across the hallway in the Loretto Heights apartments at 3400 S. Lowell Blvd. in Denver.
An argument erupted between the intoxicated Espinosa and Ramirez, who was moving a mattress out of his apartment with a friend at 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 1, 2017.
Espinosa ran back into his apartment, retrieved a shotgun and went back in the hallway and repeatedly shot Ramirez, whose wife was also injured in the shooting, Denver District Attorney’s spokesman Ken Lane wrote in a news release.
The first shotgun blast sounded like a fireworks explosion, Stephanie Ramirez said in an interview at the time. As she ran into the kitchen, her husband warned her to stay away and she paused just before another blast was fired. Espinosa was at her doorstep holding a shotgun and ready to fire.
Ramirez’s sister, who was eight-months pregnant at the time, came up from behind, grabbed Stephanie Ramirez’s shoulder and yanked her back into the hallway. That action came just in time to avoid a direct hit, but as she was turning several pellets struck her back, Stephanie Ramirez has said.
After Espinosa left, Stephanie Ramirez found her husband lying on the mattress, bleeding from two wounds to his stomach. He was screaming. Ramirez was taken to a hospital, where he died.
