BRIGHTON, Colo. — An Adams County District Court judge sentenced a man Friday to 28 years in prison for killing a man suspected of burglarizing a business that was located below his apartment, according to the District Attorney's Office.
A jury in August found William Schuette, 23, guilty of second-degree murder in the Feb. 8, 2021, fatal shooting of James Martinez, 24, near the Haraf Foods Market, located at Belle Creek Boulevard and Longs Peak Drive.
The Commerce City Police Department responded to the shooting. Officers discovered a vehicle that had crashed into several other vehicles nearby, and investigators determined at the time that multiple men were involved in burglarizing the market. Police said at the time that Schuette, a resident of a nearby apartment, told officers he shot at the suspects with a gun.
Schuette said he'd woken up to the burglary in progress, went outside onto his balcony with an AR-15 rifle and opened fire on the suspects as they drove away. Martinez was hit twice and died at the scene.
District Attorney Brian Mason said in a statement that the case was "tragic" but that "justice is ultimately reserved for the courtroom, not the streets."
"It's not the job of a man standing on his upstairs apartment balcony to pull out an assault rifle and open fire on a group of people in a car because he believes a crime is in progress," Mason said. "This defendant had no right to take the law into his own hands and take another man's life."
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