Colorado inmate gets 48 years for kidnapping, killing woman

BOULDER, Colo. — A person who was charged within the dying of a lady who went lacking in northern Colorado in 2018 pleaded responsible Friday to second-degree homicide and first-degree kidnapping.

Juan Figueroa Jr., 33, entered his plea within the dying of Rita Gutierrez-Garcia and was sentenced to 48 years in jail, the Boulder Day by day Digital camera reported. He’s already serving a sentence of 93 years to life on an unrelated intercourse assault conviction. The phrases will run consecutively.

Gutierrez-Garcia, a mom of three, went lacking March 18, 2018, when she was celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with family and friends at bars in downtown Longmont. She was final seen in a metropolis car parking zone.

Figueroa was named the first suspect, and prosecutors introduced their case to a grand jury in April 2021 as a “no physique murder.” In response to the indictment, Figueroa was arrested March 27, 2018, in Texas on a warrant for the Boulder County sexual assault case after he was stopped by Customs and Border Safety brokers whereas crossing again into the U.S. from Mexico.

Investigators stated he informed a cellmate he punched Gutierrez-Garcia into unconsciousness and strangled her after she referred to as him a “weirdo.” DNA proof and cellphone knowledge additionally linked him to Gutierrez-Garcia’s dying, in keeping with the indictment.

As a part of a plea deal, Figueroa led investigators to an space in northern Colorado’s Weld County, the place Gutierrez-Garcia’s stays had been recovered April 28.