A judge sentenced Ahmad Alissa to 10 consecutive life sentences plus more than 1,300 years in prison Monday after a jury found him guilty of 10 counts of first-degree murder and 45 other felony counts in the March 2021 attack at a Boulder King Soopers where he killed 10 people, including a police officer.
District Attorney Michael Dougherty asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence, requesting the defendant be ordered to spend 1,334 years in state prison on top of the life sentences, after he was found guilty on all 55 felony counts he faced in the rampage, including 38 attempted murder charges.
“It’s just a number, but to me, that number means a lot about what he did and the violence and trauma he inflicted upon so many people,” Dougherty said about the sentencing request.
Twentieth Judicial District Court Judge Ingrid Bakke imposed the sentence, capping a two-week trial. The jury deliberated for roughly six hours over two days.
As the judge read the guilty verdicts, Alissa, who was wearing a striped long-sleeve dress shirt and dark-framed glasses, talked with his attorneys, took notes and chewed on his fingernails. Some of his family members stood behind him, resting their heads on each other’s shoulders.
After the verdicts were read, the judge stepped out of the courtroom to talk with the jury before moving to sentencing, which began around 2:15 p.m. with victim impact statements from the family and friends of those killed or impacted by the shooting. Those lasted for more than two and a half hours.
Alissa, who has schizophrenia, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and his defense attorneys argued his delusions, including loud voices telling him to kill, prevented him from distinguishing right from wrong.
Before his sentencing, Alissa changed into a white-and-orange striped jail jumpsuit, and he appeared to exchange notes with one of his attorneys, showing no emotion, as victims’ families and friends shared memories of those lost in the shooting.
Boulder police officer Eric Talley was among 10 people killed in the shooting. The others killed were Denny Stong, 20, Neven Stanisic, 23, Rikki Olds, 25, Tralona Bartkowiak, 49, Teri Leiker, 51, Suzanne Fountain, 59, Kevin Mahoney, 61, Lynn Murray, 62, and Jody Waters, 65 were also killed.
“My dad didn’t want to go. He had so much more life in him. I never could have imagined that he would have had to run for his life in the parking lot of King Soopers,” said Erika Mahoney, Kevin Mahoney’s daughter, who was six months pregnant when she learned her father was one of the 10 victims in the shooting.
She said she feared she would lose her baby amid her intense grief after learning her father was killed.
“Destroyed, gutted, heartbroken are words that don’t even begin to explain my emotions. I thought I was going to lose my baby,” Mahoney said.
She described the two-week trial as “brutal” but also “beautiful,” referring to the acts of heroism as people panicked and tried to help others escape the gunfire.
“Those stories will stick with me for the rest of my life,” Mahoney said. “I think of the woman who made my dad laugh before his final moments on Earth. She is my angel.”
Teri Leiker, who was one of three King Soopers employees killed in the shooting, had worked at the store as a clerk for 32 years, said her mother, Margie Whittingon.
Leiker was born with mild brain damage, which made it difficult for her to comprehend abstract concepts like time and money, her mother said, but it never stopped her from having a smile on her face “most of the time.”
“Teri’s accomplishments, overcoming mild cognitive issues, did not stop her from being happy, becoming a model citizen, owning her own condo and having many friends. Her issues certainly did not make her evil,” Whittington said. “The shooter has not won. We will not live the way we would have if Teri was still with us, but we will go forward with our love for her and cherish the great happy memories we have of being with her for 51 years.”
Eric Talley’s mother, Judy, remembered the last phone call with her only son, minutes before he rushed into the supermarket as one of the first police officers on the scene.
Talley told his mom how he was looking forward to spring and complained about the banning of Dr. Seuss books in a local school, before he told her he was being dispatched. She told her son to be careful and he responded, “always.”
Another call came from one of her son’s seven children screaming, “Nana, daddy’s dead.”
“I beg you, your honor, to lock Ahmad Alissa up in prison for the rest of his life with no possibility for parole. Send this message to all the wannabe murderers out there that troll the internet to see the consequences for those that have committed the acts that they’re thinking about doing,” Judy Talley said.
“Let them see that justice can still be served.”
Alissa nor his attorney declined to address the judge ahead of sentencing.
The verdicts and sentencing came after nearly two weeks of testimony from survivors of the March 22, 2021, attack who described what they saw and heard as they hid for cover or tried to escape the supermarket as the horror unfolded. Among the people who testified was a pharmacist who recounted hearing the gunman repeat “This is fun, this is fun” as she hid from gunfire.
The first eight victims were killed within 69 seconds and all but one were shot multiple times, investigators found. Everyone who was shot died.
Testimony also came from Alissa’s parents and siblings, who said they watched his mental health deteriorate in the months before the shooting.
Prosecutors argued his actions were intentional and well researched, citing the gunman’s phone records that showed searches for most lethal ammunition and public targets to carry out a mass shooting.
Alissa, then 21, surrendered after he was shot in the leg by a police officer.
He was charged with 10 counts of murder, 38 counts of attempted murder and other offenses in the shooting, including felony possession of six high-capacity ammunition magazines that are banned in Colorado. Neither Alissa’s attorneys nor anyone else has disputed that Alissa was the gunman.