After deliberating only two hours, a Jefferson County jury today found James Joseph Armijo guilty of the 2004 stabbing death of his former girlfriend.
Armijo, 36, was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The jury pushed aside Armijo’s defense that he was not guilty by reason of insanity in the death of Jacklyn Oetker.
Oetker’s partially decomposed body was discovered in the back seat of a Chevy Blazer on Sept. 22, 2004, in a parking lot at West 100th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard. She had been stabbed more than 30 times, police said, and the vehicle had been in the lot for several days.
During the week-long trial, witnesses testified that Armijo was jealous of a friend of Oetker who had become her roommate and that Armijo had left a message threatening to torture the roommate and then kill them both.
Armijo left Colorado the day after police found Oetker’s body and went to Taos, where he was arrested the next day.
