Pamela Cabriales (Photo via Denver7)
A Denver teenager killed a woman with an AR-15-style rifle three years ago after a fender-bender, when he was 14 years old, jurors found Friday.
Remi Cordova, now 18, was convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and attempted murder in the killing of 32-year-old Pamela Cabriales at a red light on West Colfax Avenue on Feb. 20, 2021.
Prosecutors argued during a seven-day jury trial that Cordova opened fire after a minor crash and killed Cabriales in an attempt to earn status within the Eastside Crips gang.
Cordova’s defense attorneys sought to shift blame to another 14-year-old boy in the car and suggested that boy falsely named Cordova as the shooter in an attempt to avoid his own arrest.
Cordova put his head down when the verdict was read. The jury began deliberating late Tuesday and returned a verdict shortly before 11 a.m. Friday.
The man driving the car on the night of the shooting — Neshan Johnson, then 18 — was convicted of second-degree murder in Cabriales’ death last year and sentenced to 35 years in prison after jurors found he gave Cordova permission to start shooting.
That night, Johnson, Cordova and the other 14-year-old boy were stopped at the light when Cabriales pulled up behind them at about 10:45 p.m. and rear-ended the teenagers’ car in a minor crash.
Cordova, in the front passenger seat, then turned to Johnson and asked, “Can I bust on them?” prosecutors alleged. Johnson, an Eastside Crips gang member with more status than Cordova, then gave the boy permission to open fire, they alleged.
Cordova stepped out of the car with an AR-15-style rifle, aimed at Cabriales’ SUV and pulled the trigger, prosecutors said. The safety on the gun was on, though, so he had to lower the weapon, take off the safety and then open fire again, they said.
Cordova shot at least seven times into Cabriales’ SUV, hitting her in the head, prosecutors alleged. He got back into the car, fired twice more at the SUV from the car, and then Johnson and the two boys drove away, prosecutors allege. Cabriales, mother to a then-6-year-old boy, died several days later.
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All three teenagers were arrested early the next morning after a vehicle pursuit.
When Cordova was arrested, he bragged to police about his “toy” — later clarifying that he meant the AR-15-style rifle — and said he was going to “earn his stripes,” prosecutor Jacob Friedberg told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday.
“The motivation here comes from a desire to rise up through the ranks of the gang world,” he told jurors. “It’s unfortunate that is how that world works.”
Cordova was initially charged as a juvenile but Denver District Attorney Beth McCann later moved his case to adult court.
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