AURORA | A man who tortured another man with a blow torch during an Aurora home invasion robbery was sentenced Thursday to 67 years in prison.
Julio Francisco Vazquez, 32, of Aurora, was convicted last year of burglary, assault, aggravated robbery and several other charges stemming from the June 2011 attack at an apartment in Aurora.
Prosecutors say that with the help of three accomplices Vazquez, who was the group’s ringleader, held the victim hostage and burned him several times with a blowtorch. He also cut the bottoms of the victim’s feet and burned the wounds before stealing a leather jacket, wallet, cell phone and keys.
District Attorney George Brauchler said in a statement that the crime was horrific.
“The intimate act of holding a flame over the flesh of another person — listening to his screams and seeing his flesh burn — and doing it again and again, is an act of unmatched sadism,” he said. “Aside from a well-deserved punishment, there is no rehabilitating a person capable of such evil. Our community remains safe from him only as long as he is in prison.”
Vazquez’s three co-defendants — Kara Marie Obrien, Jose Manuel Talamantes and Louie Alen Leon — pleaded guilty and are already serving prison terms. Vazquez was the only defendant to take his case to trial.
Obrien, 21, of Littleton, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, Talamantes, 34, of Lakewood, was sentenced to 22 years and Leon 24, of Arvada, was sentenced to 10 years.