DENVER — The case against the person accused of shooting and killing Pamela Cabriales at a red light in 2021 is moving forward. Prosecutors last week said the teen suspect will be charged as an adult.
The update is a relief for Cabriales' family, who has felt failed by the justice system before.
“We have lost two beautiful, beautiful loved ones in the same city in the span of three decades,” said Cabriales' brother, Alex.
In 1994, Alex Cabriales said, his brother was murdered.
"I feel bad for my mom," he said. "She cries every day."
The person who shot and killed Noel Cabriales took a plea deal on a manslaughter charge and served about half of his six-year sentence.
“We were not treated fairly then,” Alex Cabriales said.
His parents are Mexican immigrants. He said they didn't know English.
“There was no one there to guide them or explain to them what was going on,” he said. “We felt like then it was just swept under the rug.”
He refuses to allow the same thing to happen this time with his sister.
“She was extremely giving, passionate, loving," he said. "She deeply, deeply cared about other people. She was a social butterfly. If you needed something, she was there for you.”
In February 2021, Pamela Cabriales was at a red light at Colfax and Interstate 25, when she was shot and killed. Investigators said two teenagers thought she tapped their car from behind. Neshan Johnson, who was 18 at the time, is serving 35 years for driving the getaway car.
“Thirty-five years was a little light, but it’s better than the seven or eight they wanted to give him in a juvenile facility,” Alex Cabriales said. “Initially they wanted to give the driver a seven-year plea deal, but our family had a meeting with the prosecutors and we said ‘no way.’”
Remi Cordova, who was 14 at the time, will now be tried as an adult for murder.
“He wants to commit adult crimes, he needs adult time,” Cabriales said.
Court documents say Cordova fired up to 20 rounds at Pamela Cabriales' car.
“Remi Cordova is an extremely dangerous, dangerous person,” Cabriales said.
“He showed no remorse in court,” he said. “For him to have blown my sister's head off, basically the whole top of it from here up – she had no skull. It's extremely cowardly what he did. Horrific. Cowardly. Evil.”
“I feel bad for my nephew, Pam’s 8-year-old son,” he said. “He gets up in the middle of the night saying, ‘I miss my mommy. I miss my mommy.’”
After feeling failed by the justice system in 1994, Alex Cabriales’ family will fight for what they believe is right, nearly 30 years later.
“Something needs to change in the justice system in the city and county of Denver. It's not right to have to fight for people to be held accountable,” Cabriales said. “We shouldn’t have to fight for justice. We shouldn’t have to fight for him to be accountable. It’s sad that this is what the justice has been.”
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