A man who wounded two sleeping children with a military assault rifle was convicted Tuesday of multiple counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Andreas “Andy” Rubio shot sisters Celine, 7, and Kenia Venzor, 13, on Aug. 21 as he randomly sprayed bullets into homes in the 100 block of Osceola Street.
The two girls were seriously wounded, and a man in a second house, Juan Anzo, 24, was hit in the face by flying glass.
Both children and their mother, Michelle, testified during the trial. After the verdict, Kenia Venzor said testifying was “the hardest thing.”
“I was looking at him (Rubio) because I wanted to show him I was strong,” she said.
The 13-year-old said her life has completely changed. She has had four surgeries, goes to physical therapy three times a week and still goes to school. She said that when she was shot, she thought she would die.
“I could feel it was going to end,” Kenia said. “I told my mom I was going to die, and I closed my eyes.”
Rubio faces between 80 and 240 years in prison when sentenced in July.
The three injured people were victims of a spat between two groups of teenage females. Terra Ramirez, 19, a girl in one group, recruited Rubio, 21, to shoot up the house of her rival.
Instead of hitting the intended target’s house, Rubio hit the Venzor and Anzo homes and riddled a car parked on Osceola.
The bullet that caused the most damage tore through the girls’ bedroom window, an entertainment center, a teddy bear and a stereo speaker and struck the children.
The bullet hit Kenia first, slicing through her left arm and her right breast and out of her right hand. Then it hit Celine in the side and exited through her lower back.
Nick Avila, Rubio’s lawyer, said he will file a motion for a new trial, citing what he considers to be inconsistent verdicts. He said Rubio was found not guilty of attempted murder of Patricia Balbuena, a woman whose home was hit by bullets. Yet he was found guilty of attempted murder of another man in the same home, Avila said.
During closing statements, prosecutor David Lamb said Rubio had total control of the situation and that residents of the neighborhood were helpless in the face of his rampage.
Lamb noted that Rubio’s weapon was an AK-47.
“It is designed to kill. He shot at least seven times over and over into this neighborhood,” the prosecutor said.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
