GREELEY, Colo. (TCN) —Â A 31-year-old man will spend the rest of his life behind bars in connection with the fatal shooting of a gas station manager during an attempted robbery several years ago.
The Weld County District Attorney’s Office announced that a jury convicted Kyle Moore on June 9 of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery. A judge subsequently sentenced him to life in the Colorado Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 64 years.
According to prosecutors, on Dec. 14, 2021, Greeley Police responded to the Cosmic Market gas station to a report of an armed man trying to steal a vehicle. Officers learned the store manager, 51-year-old Victor Martinez, had been shot during an attempted robbery. Martinez was transported to a hospital, where he died from a gunshot wound.
Authorities said Moore’s co-defendant, Trent O’Neil, pleaded guilty in 2023 to charges of second-degree murder, two counts of aggravated robbery, first-degree aggravated motor vehicle theft, and third-degree assault. He received a sentence of 55 years.
During sentencing, Weld County District Court Judge Marcelo Kopcow said, “You committed the ultimate crime of taking another person’s life. Someone who did nothing to you.”
Deputy District Attorney Timothy McCormack added, “This defendant has shown a complete disregard for human life. It’s heartbreaking that the victim’s family now must live with a life sentence of grief and loss. Mr. Martinez was simply doing his job — trying to earn a living — when his life was cruelly taken from him.”
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