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An Arapahoe County jury this week found a 22-year-old man guilty of first-degree murder for a shooting at an Aurora hotel that left one person dead and three injured.
Luis Martin Estrada was convicted Wednesday for the Oct. 2, 2021, shooting at the Hyatt House Hotel on East Colfax Avenue that left 18-year-old Angel Isia Ruiz dead, according to an Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office news release.
Officers responding about 2 a.m. to the shooting found multiple victims on the ground-level floor of the hotel. Four victims were taken to a hospital, where one died.
According to the release, Estrada and a co-defendant, Ruben Mejia-Soto, had shown up at a party at the hotel. A disturbance followed and the pair were shoved out of a room and into the hallway. Estrada fired multiple shots through the closed hotel room door, striking the victims, the release stated. An eyewitness identified Estrada as the shooter, and video surveillance showed him leaving the hotel hallway with a gun in his hand.
“Instead of walking away, Mr. Estrada decided to fire multiple shots into a crowd of people who were just behind the hotel room door. When you consider the small size of the hotel room, how many people were inside and how many times this Defendant fired into it, it’s a miracle that more of these young people were not killed,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Gary Dawson said in the release. “Angel Ruiz died in that hotel room not knowing the name of the person who fired through the door or even seeing the face of his killer, but the jury did, and they held Mr. Estrada accountable for his extremely violent behavior.”
Estrada was also convicted of four counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault, three counts of felony menacing and weapon possession by a previous offender. He will be sentenced on March 23.
Estrada’s co-defendant, Mejia-Soto pleaded guilty in May 2022 to accessory to a crime and to harassment.
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