A 51-year-old man who defended himself on charges he shot to death his ex-girlfriend and her friend in a horse pasture near Johnstown in April 2002 was sentenced this morning to life in prison without parole plus 112 years.
Allen Charles Bergerud was found guilty Wednesday in Weld County District Court of two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of Lon Yeaman, 46, and Linda Cooper, 39, by jurors in Morgan County. He was also found guilty of two counts of first-degree assault upon a peace officer.
The verdict by a five-man, five-woman panel came three weeks after testimony began. Bergerud fired his public defenders just after opening statements at the start of the trial and took over his own defense.
Bergerud – a former supervisor at a Kersey fertilizer company – was first tried in 2004 in Weld County. But a juror investigated the case and a mistrial was declared.
Publicity about the case prompted Weld County District Judge J. Robert Lowenbach to move the second trial to Morgan County.
Former Weld County District Attorney Al Dominguez sought the death penalty for Bergerud. But the new district attorney – Ken Buck – decided instead to seek a life sentence for Bergerud, saying a death sentence appeal could drag on for years.
Prosecutors said Bergerud lured Cooper and Yeaman to the field on April 7, 2002 and killed them both because he was angry Cooper had broken up with him.
