CENTENNIAL, Colo.-
A former Hurricane Katrina evacuee charged with murder in the slaying of a convenience store clerk in Aurora will stand trial, a state judge ruled Tuesday.
John Andrew Doubleday, 23, is charged with first-degree murder, felony murder and aggravated robbery in the Dec. 10 slaying of Jutte Gallegos Burton, 62. The murder charges are each punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole or death. The robbery charge is punishable by five to 16 years in prison.
Doubleday, whose two-day preliminary hearing ended Tuesday in Arapahoe County District Court, and fellow Hurricane Katrina evacuee Amie Renee Lewis, 22, were arrested Dec. 22 in Colorado Springs after police identified Doubleday as the gunman seen in surveillance video from a 7-Eleven store in Aurora.
Police said the video showed Doubleday walking into the store and exchanging a few words with Burton before firing a gun into her back.
Aurora police spokesman Detective Robert Friel has said a massive snowstorm prevented Doubleday and Lewis from fleeing.
Lewis faces a charge of being an accessory to murder.
After the two were arrested, Lewis’ 1-year-old boy, who was with them, was placed in the custody of the El Paso County Department of Human Services.
The two came to Colorado after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, Friel has said.
