A 35-year-old man has been sentenced from 200 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting three children over a four-year span.
Brian Eugene Barcelona was sentenced on March 16 by Arapahoe County District Court Judge Joseph Whitfield on 12 counts of sexual assault of a child by one in a position of trust, and four counts sexual exploitation of a child, according to a district attorney’s office news release.
On Aug. 26, 2018, the Aurora Police Department began an investigation after an Aurora father reported that his son had been sexually assaulted, according to the release. From 2015 to 2018, Barcelona sexually assaulted three boys, between the ages of 10 and 13, multiple times. Investigators found photographs of the sexual abuse on Barcelona’s cellphone.
The case went to trial on Oct. 25, 2021, and Barcelona was convicted after a seven-day trial.
“In all my years of prosecuting these types of cases, I struggle to recall another one involving such severe abuse or brazen conduct,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Danielle Jaramillo. “The defendant felt so secure in his ability to exploit his position of trust to silence these children that he actually kept photographs as trophies.”
Jaramillo tried the case with Deputy District Attorney Abby Hegarty. Whitfield consecutively imposed most of the sentencing counts in the case.
