Denver jury convicts suspect in fatal shooting outside 1-year-old’s birthday party
A Denver jury convicted a 23-year-old of murder Thursday for shooting a man to death during a fight that spilled out of a 1-year-old’s birthday party into a restaurant parking lot two years ago.
Oscar Villegas-Ortega was charged by the Denver District Attorney’s Office with murdering 30-year-old Fausto Marquez in 2020.
After a day-long deliberation, the jury found Villegas-Ortega guilty of first-degree murder with extreme indifference, manslaughter and first-degree assault, according to a news release from the Denver DA’s office.
Police and paramedics responded to the parking lot at 3600 Park Avenue West on June 27, 2020, and found multiple people injured and one man who was dead.
During a 1-year-old’s birthday party in the back room of the Old West Pancake House, Villegas-Ortega danced with the child’s mother, a cousin of his, which allegedly angered some of the other men at the party, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. Witnesses reported a fight breaking out shortly afterward that spilled into the parking lot.
Villegas-Ortega pulled a gun during the fight in the parking lot and fired at least two shots, police said. Marquez was found by police with a fatal gunshot wound to the chest.
