An Englewood teenager was sentenced Thursday to seven years in the Department of Corrections’ youth offender system for the .
Louis Lara-Macias, 17, was sentenced by Arapahoe District Judge Andrew Baum as part of a plea agreement, according to a district attorney’s news release. The sentence includes 21 years in prison, suspended, upon completion of the seven-year youth offender term. If Lara-Macias completes his youth term without further trouble, he will avoid prison as an adult.
On Oct. 19, Lara-Macias pleaded for the death of 33-year-old Nicholas Lewis, a chef at the Blackbird Public House. Lewis was shot Oct. 1, 2016.
A co-defendant in the case, Raheem Vaughn Benson, who was also 16 at the time of the shooting, is being charged as an adult with first-degree murder. Benson has pleaded not guilty. His trial is scheduled for March.
Englewood police, responding to reports of shots fired, found Lewis on his back in the 3000 block of South Acoma Street. Lewis was shot three times in the chest. He was pronounced dead at Swedish Medical Center.
Witnesses described a vehicle that had left the area, and video images from surveillance cameras in the area were used in the investigation.
Eventually, the vehicle was determined to be stolen out of Denver in September 2016. It was recovered a month later by Westminster police, who arrested Lara-Macias and another juvenile in the vehicle theft, the news release said. Englewood investigators then tied both suspects to Hill’s murder.
Lewis was walking home from a convenience store when , prosecutors said.
