A judge in Douglas County on Friday handed down a mandatory sentence of life without parole to the second of two gunmen convicted in the STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting in 2019 that claimed the life of 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo.
Castillo’s father, John Castillo, said the end of more than two years of court proceedings has provided a little bit of closure.
“It’s bittersweet,” he said. “It’s cathartic. But when we go home the house will still be empty.”
A jury in June convicted Devon Erickson of nearly four dozen charges, including three counts of first-degree felony murder for killing classmate Castillo. He was also convicted of 31 attempted-murder charges, along with a variety of lesser charges including arson, theft, possessing a weapon on school grounds, criminal mischief, burglary, and reckless endangerment.
In addition to the life sentence for murder, Douglas County District Court Judge Theresa Slade added 1,282 years for the additional charges.
During the three-week trial, prosecutors used more than 60 witnesses to describe how Erickson and his co-conspirator, Alec McKinney, planned the horrific school shooting in advance — and then carried out their mission May 7, 2019.
McKinney pleaded guilty last year to first-degree murder, along with more than a dozen other charges, and is currently serving a life sentence plus 38 years. Because he was a minor at the time, McKinney is automatically eligible for parole in 40 years.
Erickson’s trial was delayed several times as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, concluding more than two years after the incident that shook the region and forever altered the lives of hundreds of students.
The numerous court proceedings over the two years saw dozens of students, parents and teachers take the stand to describe the horrors of that May day: The terror of seeing classmates enter their senior English class with guns drawn. The panicked phone calls from their children, not knowing if they’d make it home that day.
May 7, 2019, also showcased remarkable heroism from teenagers barely old enough to vote — Joshua Jones and Brendan Bialy bolting from their seats to help Castillo take down a shooter before he could do more harm. Lauren Harper, an English teacher, and IT director Mike Pritchard risked their own lives to disarm the other gunman.
Those in the school that day talked about their struggles to cope in the aftermath — the mental toll it has taken to move on with their lives and return to some sense of normalcy.
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