DENVER (AP) — A Pueblo man has been sentenced to nine years in prison for trying to arrange the murder of a witness against him.
Ricardo “Rico” Estevan Suazo told the judge in Denver that the plot was “one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done.”
The Pueblo Chieftain reports that 27-year-old Suazo allegedlty shot the intended murder victim last July, but the victim survived.
Two months later, Suazo hatched the murder-for-hire plot because the victim was going to be a witness against him in Pueblo District Court. The plot fell apart when a Pueblo detective heard about it and posed undercover as a hit man.
The newspaper reports that Suazo entered a plea deal and agreed to a nine-year term to settle the murder-for-hire case and also pending drug charges in Pueblo.
