CENTENNIAL | A Denver man was convicted Monday, July 18, of first-degree murder in the 2013 killing of a man outside Club Fuego Fuego in Aurora.
Edgar Ibarra-Rodriguez, 26, was convicted of first-degree murder for the Nov. 16, 2013, shooting death of Humberto Bautista outside Fuego Fuego. After the Arapahoe County jury handed down the conviction, District Judge Natalie Chase sentenced him to the mandatory sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.
Bautista, 31, died after being shot in the Fuego Fuego parking lot by Ibarra-Rodriguez, whose car sped off after the shooting.
“The defendant’s crime was cold-hearted and senseless,” said Deputy District Attorney Tom Byrnes in a news release after the sentencing. “We are grateful to the witnesses who stepped forward and the persistence of the Aurora detectives who brought this 2013 case to a successful resolution.”
Homicide investigators were able to obtain enough information to obtain a warrant for Ibarra-Rodriguez’s arrest in February 2015, after a CrimeStopper tip provided a break in the case, which had stalled for more than a year until that point.
“This case illustrates the tenacity we and our law enforcement partners have when it comes to seeking justice for victims,” said District Attorney George H. Brauchler in the release. “The passage of time does not lessen our commitment to pursue charges against those who take the life of another. We will continue to seek the truth and to seek to punish the wicked.”
Bautista’s family — his mother, three children and siblings — issued a statement after the conviction praising the work of the prosecutors, police and victim advocates for their assistance after “the hardest day in our lives.”
“Humberto was a great father to his three children … It breaks out heart that the youngest won’t have the memories or know who his water was,” the family’s statement read. “We are thankful to attorneys Tom Byrnes and John Kellner, our victim advocate Michele Hance, and Aurora Police Det. Matt Ingui for all the help and hard work they did to get to the end and fight for us and get justice.”
The family, despite the lengthy investigation, were thankful for the trial’s outcome.
“We are very happy that justice was served and the perpetrator won’t be able to harm anyone else. It was a long and stressful almost three years with a lot of uncertainty,” the statement read. “We are happy we got justice. Now we can have closure in our hearts and we can learn to live it. We will always miss Humberto and are happy knowing he got justice.”
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