A Douglas County jury on Tuesday convicted STEM School Highlands Ranch shooter Devon Erickson of nearly four dozen charges, including three counts of first-degree felony murder for killing classmate Kendrick Castillo, ensuring a lifetime in prison without the possibility of parole.
The jury took about 4.5 hours to decide the 20-year-old’s fate following a three-week trial in which prosecutors put forth more than 60 witnesses and offered more than 200 pieces of evidence. His defense consisted of just two witnesses — a University of Colorado Boulder professor and a toxicologist — who opined it was possible Erickson didn’t intentionally kill Castillo.
Erickson, dressed in a grey sport coat and tie and wearing a light blue mask, stood while the verdict was read, staring forward blankly, his hands folded before him.
Castillo was killed and eight others were injured — six of them in the high school classroom — in the May 7, 2019, school shooting.
In addition to the murder charges, Erickson was convicted of 31 attempted murder charges in connection to the injured victims and others in the classroom who escaped. He was also convicted on a variety of lesser charges including arson, theft, possessing a weapon on school grounds, criminal mischief, burglary, and reckless endangerment.
The jury of seven women and five men had the option to convict Erickson on reduced charges of second-degree murder or criminally negligent homicide.
John Castillo, Kendrick’s father, had tissues in hand, and many of the victims nodded silently and patted each other on the shoulder as the judge read the guilty verdicts.
“I’m sure Kendrick was looking down on us today. This day is justice for him,” Castillo said at a brief news conference outside the courtroom after the verdicts. “I never thought I’d be fighting for justice for a crime that should never have happened.”
At least 11 of the charges have mandatory sentences.
“I think the sentence the court must impose is the equivalent to eternity,” Chief Deputy District Attorney George Brauchler told District Court Judge Theresa Slade when discussing a sentencing date. Slade wanted to impose the sentence after the verdicts were read, but Brauchler requested a pre-sentence investigation report that offers a number of details about Erickson that fall outside the evidence from the crime.
The report is not public.
The intent of the report, Brauchler said, was to ensure a future legislature or governor would have it as a reference if considering any changes of law. It was during Brauchler’s term as district attorney in which the legislature declared that all juveniles convicted of first-degree felony murder and automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole must have a chance at release after 40 years.
Brauchler also noted that a number of the victims’ family members were not present Tuesday and deserved the opportunity to speak at Erickson’s sentencing.
Slade set Erickson’s sentencing for 1:30 p.m., Sept. 17.
The other person who participated in the shooting with Erickson, Alec McKinney, is serving a life sentence plus 38 years after pleading guilty to felony murder and more than a dozen other charges. Because he was a 16-year-old at the time, he is automatically eligible for parole in 40 years.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors described Erickson as a calculating killer intent on slaughtering a room full of his classmates. The defense team said he was a troubled and misled teen, pumped up on drugs and easily manipulated by McKinney, who was homicidal and suicidal.
The most serious charges were tied to Castillo’s death. He was felled by a single gunshot Erickson fired just as Castillo and two other students rushed Erickson and tackled him. Erickson fired the gun three more times before the students pried the gun from his hand.
Erickson was also convicted of four conspiracy charges, meaning he and McKinney worked in tandem.
Reacting to the verdicts, Gov. Jared Polis said Castillo’s “bravery will never be forgotten.”
“Just over two years ago we lost a real Colorado hero who died trying to protect others,” Polis said in a statement. “We can find solace in the fact that the people responsible for this tragic and unthinkable event will be held accountable.”
Defense attorney David Kaplan left the courthouse immediately and jurors chose not to speak to the media.
Brauchler was district attorney for the 18th Judicial District when the incident occurred and his term ended in January 2021. He chose to stay on to lead the prosecution against Erickson.
“This is justice in the way that the system can provide justice, but I’m going to leave here and go home and have dinner with my kids and I can’t help but think about the fact that John and Maria (Castillo) are going to get in their car, drive to a gravesite and share this information with a headstone,” Brauchler said after the verdicts. “Kendrick’s name is synonymous with heroism and self-sacrifice.”
For Mitchell Kraus, one of Kendrick’s classmates and a survivor of the shooting, Tuesday’s verdict allows him to move on with his life. He told reporters of the mental toll the violence took on him, how he’s hoping to focus on college and his love for building games.
“We’re all part of a family we never wanted to be a part of because this event never should have happened,” he said. “He’s never going to breathe a breath of free, fresh air ever again.”
As for what he’s going to say to the shooter during sentencing in September, Kraus smirked and said: “Sayonara.”
District Attorney John Kellner praised the verdicts, adding that Erickson will not be remembered.
“His name will be forgotten,” Kellner said. “The name we remember in this community is Kendrick Castillo and all the brave young students who sprung into action to defend their own lives and the lives of their friends.”
Prosecutors repeatedly pointed to numerous opportunities Erickson had to tell anyone about the planned shooting. The day began with he and McKinney breaking into a gun safe in Erickson’s Highlands Ranch home and swiping three handguns and a rifle, which they smuggled into the school hidden in a backpack and a guitar case.
McKinney filmed the theft, as well as Erickson snorting cocaine, with a cell phone. The idea, McKinney testified, was to make it appear that Erickson was forced into participating. In reality, their plan was for McKinney to die, either by suicide or Erickson would shoot him to appear as the hero, but only after the classroom of students was already dead.
Erickson initially balked when the two approached the classroom, detouring to the school nurse, where he sat for about 10 minutes with a bag of ice. Prosecutors noted he never said a word to the adults there and did not hit the school-wide panic button that likely would have thwarted the shooting.
Instead, he returned to the classroom, where McKinney was on the opposite side. Seconds before the incident unfolded, Erickson texted his accomplice: “Go now.”
Maria Albertoni, whose son Lucas was one of the students shot, urged parents on Tuesday not take anything for granted.
“Fight for safety, fight for justice, and take care of your kids,” she said.
