A botched plan to rob a drug buyer of his money led to the buyer being shot to death. Now the shooter will spend the rest of his life in prison and three of his friends will be there with him for a substantial amount of time.
In the spring of 2007, Dylan Newman brought $10,500 to a planned drug buy on property owned by the Rooney family in Jefferson County. But Adam Zamora, who was supposed to bring a substantial amount of marijuana to the meeting, pulled out a gun and killed the 21-year-old Newman.
Zamora, 22, on Friday was sentenced to life in prison without parole, following a three-week jury trial last July in Jefferson County. His brother, Aaron Zamora, 21, was sentenced to 6 years in prison for reckless manslaughter.
Three of their friends pleaded guilty to crimes related to the incident. Jeffrey Depault, 22, pleaded guilty to second degree murder, aggravated robbery and a violent crime count last February and in August was sentenced to 42 years in prison. Eric Rooney, who was a juvenile but charged as an adult, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last week and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Derek Wolf, now 19, was the victim’s neighbor and originally set up the drug buy. He pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana and received probation for 18 months.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
