‘Serial sexual predator’ Jay Bianchi sentenced following 2025 convictions

Former Denver music promoter and businessman Jay Bianchi will spend more than a decade behind bars after being convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact, the Denver District Attorney said Friday.

Bianchi’s November trial, which included dozens of witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence, followed years of allegations of sexual assault, drugging and other crimes at his Grateful Dead-themed bars, including Sancho’s Broken Arrow and So Many Roads Brewery. Those bars were also the site of police stings related to cocaine dealing, underage alcohol sales and flouting COVID-era business rules.

Bianchi will serve 11 years in prison, Denver District Attorney John Walsh said in a statement, following his conviction on 5 of the 11 counts he faced during trial. A Denver jury in November found him guilty of three counts of sexual assault and two counts of unlawful sexual contact that occurred between 2020 and 2024.

“Jay Bianchi was a serial sexual predator – over several years, he sexually assaulted women who were physically incapable of defending themselves,” Walsh said. “As a result of today’s sentence, Bianchi is paying the price for his terrible actions and we hope that his victims can draw comfort from that fact.”

Walsh praised the case’s prosecutors and investigators, but also the victim advocates and administrative staff who supported the case. Bianchi’s defense attorneys had attempted to paint victims on the witness stand as unreliable or vindictive during the trial, but the prosecution’s parade of experts, detectives from cold case and sex crimes units, and other testimony convinced the jury of his guilt during its 8-day deliberation period.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Bree Beasley and Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Curtis led the prosecution team for the Denver DA’s Office, Walsh said.

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