The gunman who massacred 10 people at a Kings Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, in 2021 was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole.
Judge Ingrid Bakke sentenced Ahmad Alissa hours after a jury found him guilty of 10 counts of first-degree murder, 38 counts of attempted murder, one count of assault and six counts of illegal possession of high-capacity magazines. Alissa, 25, will serve 10 consecutive life sentences for the murders and an additional 1,334 years for the remaining counts.
Alissa suffers from schizophrenia and his lawyers have tried to have him acquitted by reason of insanity. While Alissa’s lawyers do not dispute that he killed 10 people, including a police officer, they maintain that he did not know right from wrong at the time.
But neither the jury nor the prosecution believed this theory. Psychologists who examined Alissa, despite his claims to have heard “murderous voices” before he went on his rampage, did not buy it. They found that his ability to distinguish right from wrong was intact, as evidenced by his fear of being imprisoned or killed by the police.
“This was not mental illness, this was brutal and intentional violence,” District Attorney Michael Dougherty said.
Alissa drove to Boulder on March 22 looking for a supermarket and pulled into the King Soopers parking lot with a legally purchased Ruger AR-556 semi-automatic pistol and began shooting.
He killed Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, the first to respond to the scene; Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65. Many of the victims’ families read impact statements after the verdict.
With News Wire Services
