WESTMINSTER, Colo. — A man who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the strangulation death of a man at a Westminster motel was sentenced Thursday.
An Adams County judge sentenced Joshua Isaac Hime, 39, to 27 years in prison for his role in the death of Jerome Lee Coleman, 57, inside a Super 8 motel in Westminster on July 19, 2017.
Westminster police found Coleman dead on the floor in his room. An autopsy concluded the cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation.
Hime and another man, Jeremy Nichols, 34, were arrested after the murder and charged with first-degree murder and robbery. They later both pleaded down to a lesser charge of second-degree murder.
Prosecutors say Nichols, who knew the victim, is more culpable in Coleman’s strangulation death, but Hime was wearing the victim’s watch when he was arrested, according to a news release from the DA’s office.
Nichols will be sentenced April 25.