CENTENNIAL | A judge Monday sentenced a man to 24 years in prison for slitting an Autrora man’s throat during a 2007 home invasion robbery.
Sonny Torres, 32, had pleaded guilty last year to attempted second-degree murder in connection with the May 2007 attack. Under terms of a plea agreement with prosecutors, he faced between 20 and 32 years in prison.
On Monday, Judge Donald W. Marshall sentenced Torres to 24 years behind bars.
According to prosecutors, in May 2007, while he was on parole for a previous burglary conviction, Torres broke into an Aurora man’s home while the man was sleeping, brandished a knife and demanded money.
Torres stabbed the man in the top of the head then slit his throat before leaving him for dead. The man survived the injury and managed to call 911, but by the time police arrived Torres had fled.
After the attack, Torres moved to California and, according to both his lawyers and the defense, largely got his life in order, got married and had a daughter.
But last year, thanks to a cell phone left at the scene linked to Torres and his DNA found there, Torres was charged with attempted murder and extradited back to Colorado.
The case was prosecuted by the new Cold Case Unity at the Arapahoe County district attorney’s office and is the second case where the unit has seen a suspect sent to prison.