DENVER — A man arrested in connection with a shooting in November 2022 that killed one person and left five others injured pleaded guilty Wednesday and was immediately sentenced to decades behind bars.
Dexter Martinez was arrested and charged in the shooting that happened on Nov. 1, 2022, near East Colfax Avenue and Verbena Street. He was charged with 35 counts but pleaded guilty to just two of them - second-degree murder and assault.
He was immediately sentenced to 45 years for the second-degree murder charge and 10 years for the assault charge. Those sentences will be served consecutively - for a total of 55 years.
Police said just after 1:50 p.m. on the day of the shooting, officers received a "shot spotter" alert indicating multiple gunshots had been fired in the 1400 block of Verbena Street. Shortly after that, several 911 calls were made reporting multiple victims had been shot.
DPD said investigators believed three suspects in a vehicle going north on Verbena stopped, got out of the car, and fired at the victims, who were standing on the curb near the intersection of Colfax and Verbena.
One victim, 41-year-old Allen Dawkins, died at the scene. The other five were taken to hospitals.
After the shooting, police said, the suspects went east on Colfax, abandoned the car they were in, and got into a black Ford Explorer near the intersection of 12th Avenue and Yosemite Street.
That explorer was later found unoccupied in the 3900 block of North Colorado Boulevard.
Surveillance video captured the shooting. It shows a group of people along the sidewalk behind Michael's Convenience Store. A blue hatchback pulls up to the corner and three people get out the video shows. They begin shooting almost immediately.
The video shows people on the street diving for cover. Within 10 seconds, the shooters get back in the car and turn eastbound on Colfax.
Two shooters are dressed in all black and appear to be wearing masks. A third, the driver, is wearing a red hoodie.
Martinez was taken into custody near East Second Avenue and Logan Street. Denver Police said Thursday that they had not yet made any other arrests in the shooting and that investigators were still working to identify other suspects.
Anyone with information is asked to call Denver Metro Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867 or visit metrodenvercrimestoppers.com. Tipsters can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward of up to $2,000.
Metro Denver Crime Stoppers works by assigning a code to people who anonymously submit a tip. Information is shared with law enforcement, and Crime Stoppers is notified at the conclusion of the investigation.
From there, an awards committee reviews the information provided and, if the information leads to an arrest, the tipster will be notified. Rewards can be collected using the code numbers received when the tip was originally submitted.
> More information about Metro Denver Crime Stoppers can be found here.
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