BRIGHTON — For nearly 20 years, the life sentence without parole has haunted those who helped put Giselle Gutierrez-Ruiz behind bars for his role as a 17-year-old in an Adams County murder.
Jurors, lawyers and the investigators who helped arrest the teenager were stuck on what one person called an injustice that made him physically sick. Even the widow of his victim strained as she thought about the young man whose life was lost to a mistake he made before he was really given a chance to live.
On Thursday, they all came together in a courtroom to petition for Gutierrez-Ruiz’s early release. Nineteen years and 19 days were more than plenty, they said, and the then-teenager from Mexico should be freed.
“This case really is the case that we came to work for,” District Court Judge Thomas R. Ensor said as he resentenced Gutierrez-Ruiz to time served. “This is the case that we decided to go to law school for, take the bar for, applied to be a judge for.”
Gutierrez-Ruiz is one of 48 Colorado inmates — sentenced to automatic prison terms of life without parole for murders committed when they were juveniles — whose cases are being reviewed under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The state’s slow response to addressing such sentences has been torturous for both victims’ families and inmates awaiting a resolution, but Thursday’s hearing for Gutierrez-Ruiz left both prosecutors, defense attorneys and the victim’s family feeling that justice was served.
“It has haunted me all these years,” an emotional Robert Sedlmayer, who was on the jury that originally convicted Gutierrez-Ruiz in 1998, said as he left court Thursday. “I didn’t really, really know on the jury what he was going to be sentenced to.”
Gutierrez-Ruiz was behind the wheel of a vehicle in October 1997 when his passenger, Abel Martinez-Sanchez, a man Gutierrez-Ruiz says he barely knew, leaned out the window and shot men in two different cars over a span of about an hour. In the second shooting, on Interstate 25 near its intersection with Interstate 76, Rumaldo Castillo-Hernandez was killed after being wounded and crashing his vehicle.
Martinez-Sanchez was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Ensor on Thursday found that Gutierrez-Ruiz’s defense team was ineffective during the original trial, leading to his first-degree murder conviction and subsequent sentence. In turn, Gutierrez-Ruiz pleaded guilty to lesser counts of second-degree murder and felony menacing, allowing Ensor to issue the new sentence: 19 years and 19 days, the time he had already served.
“The court finds that the finding of guilt that the jury made in this case was in fact technically correct,” Ensor said. “But there are other things that must be looked at. Facts that as human beings we need to look at and realize.”
The new sentence is the end of a roughly three-year battle by Gutierrez-Ruiz’s defense team, led by lawyer Ashley Ratliff, who traveled to her client’s small hometown in Mexico as part of her efforts to win his release. She also reached out to and involved Castillo-Hernandez’s widow in the process, learning that she, too, was troubled by Gutierrez-Ruiz’s sentence.
“It’s appalling that a (lawyer) bar card didn’t mean anything to (Gutierrez-Ruiz’s initial attorneys),” Ratliff said while celebrating the new sentence. “And it’s unfortunate because Giselle was then sent to prison for life without the possibility of parole. I believed really strongly that Giselle needs to go home, and I’ve been working night and day to figure out how I can help the person who makes the decision get there, too.”
Ultimately, Gutierrez-Ruiz is slated for deportation to Mexico because he is a convicted felon. Sometime in the next several weeks, he should be released from jail and sent to a federal immigration detention center.
His two sisters — including Kelly Gutierrez, who came from Mexico — were in court Thursday. Gutierrez, speaking through a translator, said, “We lost hope for some time,” but added that she’s ecstatic now.
One of the people who testified at the hearing was retired Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Michael Reibaum, who helped arrest Gutierrez-Ruiz. He said it was the first time he had ever testified on behalf of a defendant.
“When I heard the sentence in (Gutierrez-Ruiz’s) case, I physically became ill,” he told the court, calling the penalty an “injustice and travesty.”
Giselle Gutierrez-Ruiz's defense team celebrates after his life in prison sentence was reduced. Story coming. pic.twitter.com/GuBNf4I2xq
— Jesse Aaron Paul ☀ (@JesseAPaul) November 10, 2016
Adams County District Attorney Dave Young says the case is the first in his 25 years as a prosecutor where a victim’s widow came forward to ask for a defendant to be resentenced. Between her request and an extended meeting with Gutierrez-Ruiz at the Limon Correctional Facility, he decided to seek the lesser penalty.
“I think justice is served,” Young said outside the courtroom. “It’s unfortunate. We still have someone who lost their life. … I put a lot of time and effort into his release. Normally, as a prosecutor, you put a lot of time in to get a conviction.”
Ensor applauded Young — whose office is reviewing seven life-without-parole sentences handed down against juveniles — during the hearing, saying Young “really stuck your neck out here.”
Gutierrez-Ruiz began painting in prison, selling his work to raise more than $5,000 for research into child cancer. Young and Ensor cited his rehabilitation work as one of the reasons he should be freed.
Gutierrez-Ruiz, who stood in a green jail jumpsuit beside his lawyers, apologized to the court and his victims’ families.
“Nineteen years ago, I was a kid without any experience,” he said. “I did not understand how beautiful life was. … Today, I’m a different man. I’m someone who, despite growing up in prison, has learned to truly appreciate life.”
The widow of Gutierrez-Ruiz’s victim embraced his apology. She said she was pleased with the new sentence as she walked out of court with a painting Gutierrez-Ruiz made for her.
“If my husband were here, his wish would be the same,” she testified in court. “With this resentencing, my husband will rest in peace and I will have peace.”
