DENVER (AP) — A man convicted of pointing a gun at Burger King workers who wouldn’t accept drugs for payment and later shooting at other people elsewhere that night has been sentenced to 143 years in prison.
Prosecutors who announced the sentence Thursday said the drive-thru incident was the start of a series of crimes Eugene Robertson carried out in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Oct. 17, 2022. No one was injured.
In April, a jury found Robertson guilty of 17 felonies, including eight counts of attempted murder. The sentences for many of the crimes were stacked on top of each other, leading to a long sentence. Robertson, 40, had been given a maximum sentence of more than 400 years when he was sentenced on August 9.
“We believe this 143-year prison sentence is fair to the many victims he feared that night. Jurors recognized the seriousness of the crimes the defendant committed. We believe the judge imposed an appropriate sentence,” said Eric Ross, a spokesman for the 18th District Attorney John Kellner, on Friday.
After Robertson pointed the gun at the drive-through worker, prosecutors said he walked into a convenience store across the street and pointed a gun at the head of a clerk. When Robertson saw that there was a surveillance video camera system there, he shot at the screen and walked away, then shot at two people outside in the parking lot, Kellner’s office said.
Sentinel Colorado in Aurora earlier reported that a witness at the convenience store told police that there appeared to be “something wrong” with Robertson and that he was “talking about God” and carrying a Bible with a purple cover.
Later that evening, a woman who was friends with Robertson called 911 to report that he had fired shots after she refused to open the door to her apartment, where she was with several people, prosecutors said.
Police discovered Robertson at the woman’s apartment complex. He hid behind some bushes before being arrested, prosecutors said.