A man who faced life in prison before his 2022 murder conviction in a fatal Westminster shooting was overturned last year took a plea deal instead of a new trial and will only spend 12 years behind bars, according to Adams County court records.
Juan Manuel Castorena’s original first-degree murder conviction and life sentence were overturned in 2025 by the Colorado Court of Appeals, which ordered that the case be retried.
The 31-year-old man instead pleaded guilty on May 8 as part of a deal to reckless manslaughter, a felony, according to court records. Part of that deal was a stipulated 12-year sentence in the Colorado Department of Corrections, followed by three years of parole, court records show.
Witnesses told police that two men attacked 23-year-old Ricardo Rivas in the parking lot of the Village of Greenbriar Apartments, 8290 N. Federal Boulevard, in 2018.
One man shot Rivas in the head when he tried to follow the pair back to their car, police said. The witness who identified Castorena as the shooter gave contradictory statements about what the suspect looked like throughout the investigation and trial, leading to the case being overturned.
