Man sentenced to 30 years in prison
The man found guilty of attempted murder and assault in a Boulder stabbing case in 2020 was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison.
Eric Alan Serrott, 48, was found guilty in April by a Boulder County jury of two counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree assault.
The jury also ruled prosecutors proved five sentence enhancing counts. Serrott had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
On Thursday, Boulder District Judge Nancy Salomone sentenced Serrott to 30 years on the attempted first-degree murder charge, as well as 16 years on the assault charge to be served concurrently.
The sentencing range for attempted murder is 16 to 48 years.
According to a news release, Serrott stabbed a man who had been asleep at a homeless encampment behind Boulder Gas, located at 28th Street and Valmont Road. Serrott and the then 64-year-old victim didn’t know each other beforehand.
Other people in the encampment helped stop the attack and called for medical help, according to the release, and doctors later determined that an artery had been cut by one of the deeper stab wounds. Police officers located Serrott hiding in the bushes behind a building several blocks away, according to the release.
In determining the sentence, Salomone cited his lengthy criminal history, which includes aggravated theft, robbery and assault on police officers.
“It’s not wrong to say that somebody who re-offends over and over again for three decades is a real menace and a problem to our community,” she said.
She also talked about the “utter lack of provocation” for the attack, which she said added trauma to the homeless victim’s “already traumatized” life and to the lives of the other homeless people living in the encampment.
As a factor for a shorter sentence, Salomone said, she believes that he wouldn’t have stabbed the victim if he hadn’t used LSD and had a bad reaction to the drug.
“It is, in some ways, a completely tragic event,” she said.
She said other mitigating factors included the trauma he experienced as both a child and an adult, as well as Serrott’s age.
She said a longer sentence would mean “essentially no chance” for release.
“That hopelessness is its own form of punishment,” she said.
In asking for a 40-year sentence, Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty pointed to “the brutal nature of the attack,” the failure of the defendant to accept responsibility and his criminal history.
He said the victim was in danger of bleeding to death and would have died without quick medical attention.
“He is lucky to be alive,” he said.
Defense attorney Gregory Rawlings, who asked for the minimum of 16 years, countered that Serrott had “profound” mental health issues, as well as a traumatic brain injury and trauma from seeing his wife killed a few years ago. He added that Serrott had a psychotic episode on the night of the stabbing.
“My client doesn’t have any real memory of that night,” he said.
Serrott said at the sentencing that he plans to appeal his conviction, thus he couldn’t talk about the sentence other than to say he had “no intention of being violent.”
The victim testified at the trial, but was not present at Thursday’s sentencing.
The judge on Thursday also dismissed five pending Boulder County cases against Serrott, which included charges of identity theft, violation of bond and introduction of contraband.