DENVER—A man has been ordered to spend 48 years in prison in the July 2005 beating and stabbing death of a disabled Denver woman.
Forty-eight-year-old Gerald Cooper was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the slaying of 57-year-old Carol Colaiano.
Police discovered Colaiano dead in her downtown apartment after an aide found her and called for help.
Prosecutors say detectives investigated an attack in the same apartment building seven months later in which a woman was sexually assaulted. The woman later identified Cooper, who also lived in the building, as her attacker.
Cooper eventually pleaded guilty to an assault count and was sentenced to prison, where he was required to provide a DNA sample. Authorities matched his DNA to blood found in Colaiano’s home.
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Information from: Rocky Mountain News,
