BROOMFIELD — The man accused of murdering 13-year-old Kelsey Shannon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Monday.
Under the terms of a plea agreement worked out between prosecutors and defense attorneys, Alexander “Alex” Paul Pacheco, 19, was sentenced immediately to 48 years in prison by Broomfield District Court Judge John Popovich.
In a courtroom packed with Kelsey’s relatives, who wore butterfly pins and teal bracelets bearing her name, Pacheco confessed to killing his then-girlfriend in October 2008.
Kelsey, a student at Westlake Middle School, disappeared the afternoon of Oct. 14, 2008, after an argument with her parents. Her 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 Jan. 24, 2009, at his mother’s Lakewood home — less than 24 hours after Kelsey’s body was identified. He was charged with first-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death and abuse of a corpse, and has been held without bail in Broomfield County Jail since his arrest.
As part of the plea agreement for the second-degree murder charge, the other charges will be dropped. Also dropped was a charge against Pacheco for allegedly sexually assaulting his cellmate at the Broomfield County jail in June.
Pacheco also pleaded guilty Monday to intimidating a witness, which stemmed from his threatening jail inmates to whom he allegedly confessed that he killed Kelsey. The sentence for that charge will be included in the sentencing for the second-degree murder conviction.
