The Denver Channel
March 5, 2015
Twenty-one years after a group of masked people claiming to be drug agents kicked down the door of a home in Denver in the middle of the night, attacked the residents inside and tortured them, a second person has been sentenced for the crime.
The lone survivor of the attack told police that the invaders demanded money and drugs at 3 a.m. before attacking the residents.
Two people died — Jacqueline Gallegos and Nelson Swiggett. Gallegos had two children, the oldest was just six at the time.
District attorney spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said the case was reopened as part of Denver’s Cold Case Project and DNA evidence linked Andre Jackson, Samuel Sims and Jackie McConnell to the crime.
Last year, Jackson was sentenced to two terms of life in person plus 72 years.
Monday, a second defendant, Sims was given the same sentence. He was found guilty of multiple counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of sexual assault.
At the sentencing hearing, Gallegos’ son said there were no words to adequately share what it was like to grow up without their mother.
The third suspect, McConnell, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and will be sentenced next week.
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