Man found guilty in 2022 murder

BRIGHTON, Colo. — A man was found guilty last week of shooting and killing a woman in a hotel room in Brighton in 2022, according to court documents. 

Ricardo Perales-Cordero, 33, was found guilty Nov. 4 in Adams County District Court of one count of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.

The shooting happened Oct. 19, 2022, in a hotel room at the Quality Inn at Brighton Road and Bromley Lane.

Prosecutors said the victim, whose name has not been released, met Perales-Cordero online in March 2022. The two engaged in a long-distance relationship, and a few days before her death, the victim tried to end that relationship, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Perales-Cordero traveled to Brighton from his home of Houston, and on Oct. 19, he met the victim at the Quality Inn. Hotel employees heard an argument and two gunshots, then saw Perales-Cordero hurriedly leave the hotel, prosecutors said.

Perales-Cordero was arrested later that afternoon in Trinidad.

“This defendant, rather than let the victim return to her children, murdered her in cold blood in a Brighton hotel,” District Attorney Brian Mason said in a news release. “It is heartbreaking to see another incident of domestic violence take the life of a mother, who now leaves behind her children and family. I am grateful to the Brighton Police Department for their work on this case, to my team for their effective prosecution, and to the jury for their willingness to sit through this lengthy trial and to deliver a just verdict.”