Ahmad Alissa was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for each of 10 murder victims Monday afternoon after being found guilty on all 55 counts against him for the King Soopers shooting three years ago. Immediately after his conviction, he was led out of the courtroom dressed in civilian clothing. When he returned, he was dressed in an orange and white striped jail outfit and listened, often looking to the podium where the victims' friends and family members spoke about the impact of his decision to commit a mass murder in a crowded place on a sleepy Monday afternoon that March.
Dozens of them had stories for 20th Judicial District Ingrid Bakke during the trial's sentencing phase. Some expressed forgiveness. Others were perplexed that the gunman never expressed remorse for the lives he took.
“How about sorry? Where is the apology? An iota of remorse would have gone a long way,” said Kevin Mahoney’s daughter, Erika Mahoney. “If you would have driven into the parking lot and said, 'I need help,' my father would have been the first one to help you.” She was six months pregnant when her father was killed.
On Boulder Police officer Eric Talley’s last day, he was complaining to his mom, Judy, about how Dr. Seuss’s books were being banned and how he couldn’t get a McDonald’s spicy chicken sandwich. But he had to get off of the phone.
“Mom, I'm dispatched. I gotta go,” he had said. “Be careful,” she had replied.
Like some of the other family members, Judy Talley remarked on the positive things of her son's legacy. "Maybe he thought he put out Eric’s life," she said of Alissa. "He didn’t.
Eric lived 18,805 days on this planet and he loved his family and his seven beautiful children." It was an emotional afternoon of insight and release for families who had waited 3.5 years for the trial, in which the defendant, 25, was found guilty of 55 counts, including first degree murder for the victims he shot in the Boulder Table Mesa King Soopers on March 22, 2021.
Talley was the tenth and last victim that day. Terri Leiker’s mother, Margie Whittington, explained that her daughter was born with mild brain damage caused by an anesthetic Whittington had during surgery. "She could read, she could write, and she could keep a home," Whittington said.
“She (Terri) would be 55 now.” She said that Leiker was beloved by customers who knew her during her 32-year career as a King Soopers courtesy clerk. When it was Bobby Olds’ turn, Rikki Olds’ uncle said the words: “Thou shalt not kill,” followed by every victim’s name.
“It’s absolutely absurd that a murderer has more rights than a victim,” said Olds, who did not miss a day of trial, always in the front row and often wearing an American flag shirt. Tralona ‘Lonna’ Bartkowiak's mother, Star, said her daughter went to the grocery store that day to pick up a prescription and never came home again. When she got the call that her daughter was dead, “my face was melting.
I couldn’t breathe," said Bartkowiak. Every morning that she woke up, she "wished it was a bad dream," she said, adding, but “it was another (expletive) day.” Along with the sadness, there were also fond moments.
Nicolina Stanicik said that her big brother, Neven, loved to take things apart from the time he was a child, like a razor scooter he received as a present. One day, he turned up with blue hands after fixing a Slurpee machine. Stanicik, 23, was the first to be shot and killed, still strapped in the seatbelt of his service van.
He had just fixed a Starbucks expresso machine and was on his tablet figuring out his next call. She said that Neven, whose family emigrated from Serbia when he was a baby, was her parents' "first joy, first happiness and their first sadness and heartbreak." As the 3.
5 years of wondering ended for victims' families, Bakke thanked them for their patience. She gave a short tribute to each of the 10 murder victims and thanked the victims’ families for giving life to those who died with their statements. “There’s somebody behind that name," she told them.
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