WESTMINSTER, Colo. — A man has been sentenced to two terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of killing two people outside a Westminster bar last year.
Stephen Muniz, 40, was sentenced Thursday in Adams County District Court. He was convicted in December of two counts of first-degree murder – after deliberation and two counts of first-degree murder – universal malice, prosecutors said. The victims were 33-year-old Keith Ames and 31-year-old Jessica Ybarra.
> The video above aired the day after the shooting.
The 17th Judicial District Attorney's Office said on March 5, Muniz went to Sportswatch Bar and Grill on Lowell Boulevard with family, friends and people in the gang he admitted to being a member of. At some point, Muniz's group got into a confrontation with another group, prosecutors said.
Later that night, Muniz followed Ames, who had been involved in the earlier confrontation, as Ames left the bar. When they reached the parking lot, Muniz confronted Ames and fired four shots at him, prosecutors said. Two of the shots hit Ames in the back. The other two hit Ybarra, who was standing nearby. Both victims died of their injuries.
Prosecutors said after firing the shots, Muniz got into a friend's truck, and the two left the scene. Muniz was arrested several days later.
The friend driving the truck, Robert Manzanares, was convicted in December of accessory to a crime. He was sentenced to three years in the Department of Corrections, prosecutors said.
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