STEM suspect won’t face death

Parents of student killed oppose DA’s decision to seek life sentence for Erickson

The adult charged in the STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting will not face the death penalty.

Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler filed notice to the courts Thursday morning that his office would not seek a death sentence for 19year-old Devon Erickson, despite the wishes of the family of Kendrick Castillo, the 18-yearold student who was killed in the May 7 attack.

“For the record, my wife and I are for putting him to death,” Kendrick’s father, John Castillo, said Thursday of Erickson. “That’s just plain and simple.”

Officials from the district attorney’s office told the Castillos of the decision not to seek the death penalty on Wednesday and said they instead will pursue life in prison for Erickson, John Castillo said.

Brauchler wrote in a court filing that Erickson’s case includes five aggravating factors, including that he is accused of entering into an agreement to kill and accused of carrying out an ambush that put multiple people in grave danger. Eight people were injured in the shooting and survived.

Brauchler also cited three mitigating factors, including Erickson’s young age and the absence of any prior criminal convictions.

Castillo said the district attorney’s office also considered Erickson’s drug use and told the family that obtaining a death sentence would be difficult.

“I wish we could be done with it,” Castillo said.

“Those are my feelings, and apparently they don’t jive with what is achievable and I understand that.”

He said he realizes some will disagree with his stance on the death penalty, but said he and his wife are devastated by Kendrick’s death and that others should consider their pain before passing judgment.

“Nobody will ever know our pain and our loss,” he said.

Erickson has pleaded not guilty, and the case is scheduled to go to trial in May.

The second suspect in the attack, 16-year-old Alec McKinney, pleaded guilty in February to first-degree murder and 16 other charges. He could spend 20 years to life in prison.

The district attorney’s decision on the death penalty came weeks after the state legislature voted to abolish capital punishment in future criminal cases. Gov. Jared Polis is expected to sign the bill into law this month.

That repeal will abolish the death penalty in cases filed on or after July 1, and does not apply to pending cases.

That means Brauchler could have sought the death penalty because Erickson has already been charged, although some experts told The Denver Post this week that a death sentence in a state that has abolished capital punishment is largely symbolic because it is unlikely the defendant would ever be executed.

The last death penalty case prosecuted by Brauchler’s office was in 2015 when an Arapahoe County jury declined to execute the Aurora theater shooter, who killed 12 and wounded 70. Instead, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

And in 2016, Brauchler filed the paperwork to seek the death penalty against Brandon Jamaal Johnson, who slit his 6-year-old son’s throat and raped his exgirlfriend. But Johnson pleaded guilty in 2018 and was sentenced to life without parole, plus 54 years.