A 45-year-old man will spend 60 years in prison after he took a deal and pleaded guilty this week to murder and assault in the 2023 death of a Denver woman, according to court records.
On Feb. 24, 2023, Clemente Flores-Hernandez shot and killed 44-year-old Karol Bedoya in her Denver home while she was sitting on her couch watching television with her 2-year-old grandson, the Denver District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. The two had been intimate partners for about 10 years.
Bedoya’s son ran up from the basement after hearing the four gunshots and saw Flores-Hernandez approaching him with a gun, the news release stated.
The two fought and Flores-Hernandez strangled Bedoya’s son until he collapsed, prosecutors said in the release. Flores-Hernandez then took Bedoya’s 2-year-old grandson and fled the scene.
After a high-speed chase along Interstate 70, Colorado State Patrol troopers and Adams County sheriff’s deputies arrested Flores-Hernandez about 30 miles east of Denver. The 2-year-old boy was unharmed.
Flores-Hernandez pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder and first-degree assault by strangulation, court records show.
The 45-year-old’s plea deal dropped additional charges of first-degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree attempted murder, second-degree assault by strangulation, kidnapping, vehicular eluding and child abuse from his case.
According to court records, Flores-Hernandez was sentenced to 48 years in prison on the murder charge and 12 years on the assault charge. Both sentences will be served consecutively for a total of 60 years in prison.
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