Last of four suspects in Old Stage Road murder receives maximum sentence
The last defendant in the murder case of a man found dead in unincorporated El Paso County last year was sentenced to a maximum term in prison on Tuesday.
Yessica Cortes-Barcenas, 28, appeared in court Tuesday afternoon after taking a plea to murder in the second degree. Cortes-Barcenas is the last of four people found guilty in the murder of Manuel Hernandez-Uribe, 31, whose body was found on Old Stage Road in June 2022. Cortes-Barcenas was the ex-girlfriend of Hernandez-Uribe, according to court records from the case.
Along with Cortes-Barcenas, Isidrio Sarabia-Gonzalez, 24, Braulio Barron-Rubio, 34, and Ector Sarabia-Cabrera, 23, have also been convicted in the killing of Hernandez-Uribe, who was found along the side of the road with gunshot wounds, according to an arrest affidavit.
On June 6, Hernandez-Uribe made several 911 calls reporting a break-in at his home in Colorado Springs, an arrest affidavit states.
A little over an hour later at 6:04 a.m., Hernandez-Uribe placed a second 911 call, telling officers he was "in danger." In the 911 call, he can be heard saying in Spanish "I don't want problems, I have two kids. I didn't do anything ... I didn't mean to."
A female voice can be heard saying "shut up" before the phone call ended, according to the affidavit.
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"When CSPD officers arrived approximately 20 minutes later, they found forced entry to the front door, but Hernandez-Uribe was not present," the affidavit states.
Cortes-Barcenas was arrested on suspicion of the murder along with the others after a police investigation into surveillance footage, text messages and Facebook messages, according to court documents. The other defendants in the case have plead to similar offenses.
Cortes-Barcenas was sentenced to 48 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections with a mandatory five years of parole. The sentence is the maximum stipulated in her plea, which had a range from 30 to 48 years.
Judge Laura Findorff said she saw Cortes-Barcenas as the "nexus" of the crime, having known the victim and been involved in the break in of his residence that led to Hernandez-Uribe's murder.
Findorff said she imposed the max sentence due to Cortes-Barcenas' "shocking" lack of accountability for the crime in the pre-sentencing investigation. The judge also rejected Cortes-Barcenas' attorney's assertion that Cortes-Barcenas had less of a role in the killing than other defendants.
