LONGMONT, Colo.—A man serving prison time on a rape conviction has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 1993 strangulation death of a Longmont woman.
Forty-eight-year-old Rudy Gaytan entered his plea Monday in Boulder County District Court. He also pleaded guilty to being a habitual offender.
He was charged in the death of 30-year-old Tammera Tatum. Tatum’s common-law husband discovered her body in her apartment. Their 1-year-old daughter was found crying in the same room.
Gaytan was sentenced to 72 years in prison, to run concurrently with a 72-year term from a 2007 rape conviction. He would not be eligible for parole until he is 103.
The rape conviction stemmed from a 1996 attack on a 19-year-old woman.
DNA evidence led his arrests in both cases.
———
Information from: Daily Times-Call,
