DENVER (AP) — A Colorado man who was charged with shooting, dismembering and burning a man’s body at a homeless camp has been found guilty of first-degree murder.
Arapahoe County prosecutors tell The Denver Post that 37-year-old Richard Alan Darling was found guilty Thursday in the Halloween night 2015 death of Rey Pesina in Aurora.
Initial reports said the woman who reported the killing was Pesina’s girlfriend and also was having a sexual relationship with Darling.
Witnesses said Darling shot Pesina with a .22 caliber rifle, beat him with the butt of the gun and dismembered him with a hatchet.
Officers responding to the Interstate 225 underpass found parts of Pesina’s body in a nearby creek and bones after putting out a fire in a 55-gallon barrel.
Darling argued he acted in self-defense.