BROOMFIELD — The man accused of murdering 13-year-old Kelsey Shannon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder today.
Under the terms of a plea agreement worked out between prosecutors and defense attorneys, Alexander “Alex” Paul Pacheco, 19, will face up to 48 years in prison.
Pacheco, in a Broomfield courtroom on Monday confessed to killing Shannon, his then-girlfriend, in October 2008.
Kelsey, a student at Westlake Middle School, disappeared the afternoon of Oct. 14, 2008, following an argument with her parents. Her severely decomposed body was found Jan. 21, 2009, in a drainage ditch northeast of the intersection of Lowell Boulevard and West 136th Avenue, less than a mile from her family’s home in the Broadlands.
Pacheco was arrested early Jan. 24 at his mother’s Lakewood home — less than 24 hours after Kelsey’s body was identified. Pacheco was charged with first-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death and abuse of a corpse and has been held without bond in Broomfield County Jail since his arrest.
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