UPDATE | April 1, 2024 — Owen Darian Ruiz was sentenced to seven years in the youth offender system, with a suspended sentence of 32 years in the Department of Corrections.
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DENVER – A murder suspect charged as an adult in the murder of a teen near a Denver skate park plead guilty Friday to second-degree murder, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office.
Owen Darian Ruiz, who was 16 years old when he murdered 16-year-old Juan Herrera Lozano near the Downtown Denver Skate Park and Commons Park, was charged as an adult in December 2022.
Officers with the Denver Police Department responded to the park in April of that year after receiving a report that a person was "down in the street" and the suspects had fled the scene in a dark-colored sedan, according to an arrest affidavit for Ruiz.
Police found Herrera-Lozano lying in the street with gunshot wounds and he was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced deceased at 6:38 p.m., according to investigators.
Ruiz will be sentenced April 1.
