DENVER — A woman has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to fatally shooting her husband outside a Denver home two years ago.
Janet Juarez, 24, pleaded guilty in February to second-degree murder - heat of passion in connection with the death of 22-year-old Luiz Sandoval. She was sentenced Friday to 32 years in prison, according to court records. A first-degree murder charge was dismissed by the plea agreement.
The shooting happened April 18, 2021 outside a home on Granby Street in the Montbello neighborhood.
Juarez and the victim had been married since December 2020 and had a child together, according to the Denver Police Department probable cause statement in the case.
A witness told detectives at the time that they heard two gunshots and then saw a woman with a gun in her hand standing outside a vehicle in a driveway with a rear door open. The witness said they heard another shot before the woman picked up a black diaper bag and walked inside the home, according to the PC statement.
Two more witnesses said that Juarez admitted to shooting her husband right after it happened and that Juarez said her husband was trying to kill her, according to the PC statement. One of the witnesses also told detectives that Juarez's husband had been verbally and physically abusive to her, the statement says.
The witnesses said that Juarez didn't live at the house where the shooting happened but occasionally stayed there, according to the statement.
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