DENVER — A judge has sentenced a defendant who was 14 years old when he was charged, along with a co-defendant, of shooting and killing a woman after a fender bender in Denver in 2021.
Denver District Court Judge Darryl Shockley sentenced Remi Cordova to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years for first-degree murder, and eight years in prison for his conviction on a first-degree attempted murder, the Denver District Attorney's Office said Thursday. Cordova was convicted by a jury of both counts on Nov. 1. The sentences will run consecutively.
The charges stem from Feb. 20, 2021. That day, Pamela Cabriales, 32, was driving westbound on W. Colfax Avenue near Interstate 25 when she was involved in a fender bender crash with Cordova and his co-defendant Neshan Johnson, who was 18 at the time and driving a Honda. The district attorney's office said Johnson "acted as the get-away driver" while Cordova, who was in the front passenger seat, got out of the car and shot Cabriales with a high-powered assault rifle after the minor crash.
The defendants then fled from the scene.
Cabriales died of her injuries.
"We are all just devastated," Mayra Zambrano, a longtime friend, told Denver7 in February 2021. "She was such a great person that we can't see our lives without her."
Hear more from her loved ones in our 2021 report below.
During the investigation, police found eight bullet marks on Cabriales' windshield, according to a probable cause statement.
Denver police were able to link the Honda to a shooting at McDonald's on W. Alameda the night prior, where a suspect fired three times into the restaurant. Surveillance footage captured the car's license plate. It had been stolen out of Aurora, according to the probable cause statement.
Police spotted the Honda the night after the Colfax and I-25 shooting and used a maneuver to stop the driver on S. Tejon Street near W. Byers Place. Police said an adult and two juveniles took off on foot, but all three were taken into custody. Police found 16 live rounds of .22 caliber ammunition in the shed where Johnson was found hiding and one .223 caliber shell casing. They also found two AR-15 rifles in the Honda's back seat, according to a probable cause statement.
Cordova was charged and tried as an adult due to the severity of the case. His attempted murder charge stemmed from the driver behind Cabriales's car, according to the Denver District Attorney's Office. That driver was not injured.
He was found guilty by a jury in early November and was sentenced this week.
“This sentence will ensure that Remi Cordova is held accountable and pays a significant price for his heinous crimes," said Denver District Attorney Beth McCann. "Pamela Cabriales was a loving, joyful and hard-working young woman who would be with us today were it not for Mr. Cordova’s entirely senseless actions the night of the murder. My thoughts continue to be with all those who knew and loved Pamela, especially her young son. I want to thank the prosecutors, investigators and victim advocates in my office, as well as the detectives with the Denver Police Department, for their outstanding work on this difficult case.”
A Denver jury in March 2023 found Cordova's co-defendant, Johnson, guilty of two counts of second-degree murder, one count of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter, one count of criminal attempt to commit assault, one count of vehicular eluding and one count of being an accessory to a crime. On June 30, 2023, Johnson was sentenced to 35 years in the Department of Corrections and 14 years of parole.
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