GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A man who killed a western Colorado sheriff's deputy while trying to evade arrest has been sentenced to 70 years in prison.
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports 20-year-old Austin Holzer was sentenced Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the February 2016 death of Mesa County sheriff's deputy Derek Geer.
Holzer, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, also pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and a sentence-enhancing crime of violence charge as part of a deal with prosecutors. He was charged as an adult.
Geer's widow, the recently re-married Kate Geer-Armsby, said during the sentencing hearing, "I pray that he never sets foot outside prison alive, and I'm not sorry for it."
Holzer apologized to Geer's family.
