A Denver jury on Wednesday found a man guilty of beating a young woman to death in a Denver church 35 years ago.
James Scott, 53, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Martha Guzman, according to a news release Wednesday from the Denver district attorney’s office.
Guzman, a senior at West High School, was preparing for an evening service at the Spanish Church of God, at 3401 Bryant St., when Oct. 25, 1979. She was stripped, raped, stabbed and beaten at the church.
She was found by the church’s pastor and his family, who called for help. Guzman died from her injuries several days later.
Twenty-seven years after Guzman’s death, Scott was extradited to Denver from New York. Scott had been sentenced to 40 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to sexual assault and kidnapping in a 1995 case.
Detectives identified while they were investigating that case.
Scott was charged with murder in Guzman’s death, but the case was not allowed to go forward because Scott was extradited to Colorado for the sole purpose of facing the charges in the 1995 case, not Guzman’s death.
After he pleaded guilty in the 1995 case, Scott was sent back to New York to serve a lengthy prison sentence in a case he was convicted of in that state.
Denver prosecutors dismissed the original murder charge in Guzman’s death so they could re-file the charge and move the case forward. Scott was sentenced to life in prison without parole after the jury’s verdict was read Wednesday afternoon.
Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794, jsteffen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jsteffendp
