A man police say was involved in two separate killings in early 2014 pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in one of the cases last week.
Abdullah Jahlil Ratcliff, 21, had been charged with first-degree murder and robbery in connection with the Jan. 11, 2014 slaying of 22-year-old Arturo Arguelles-Chavez.
He was set to go on trial last week but on the eve of the trial accepted a plea agreement with prosecutors, under which he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He is set for sentencing in March.
Another man, Del Dawan Bankett, Jr., 25, was sentenced to life in prison last year for his role in Arguelles-Chavez’s slaying.
Police say a few weeks after that killing, Ratcliff was part of a bungled robbery that left 19-year-old Korin Williams dead.
Ratcliff was charged with several crimes in that case, including robbery and being an accessory to a crime, and is set to go on trial in May.
In the Arguelles-Chavez case, prosecutors say Bankett and Arguelles-Chavez met that day so Bankett could sell the victim an iPhone for $200. Arguelles-Chavez repaired broken iPhones and sold them for a living, prosecutors said.
When the pair met on the 14000 block of East First Drive, prosecutors say Bankett tried to increase the cost of the phone to $250 but Arguelles-Chavez refused to pay the difference. Bankett then walked back into an apartment and returned with a gun and pointed it at Arguelles-Chavez.
Michelle Yi, a spokeswoman for the DA’s office, said Ratcliff then demanded that Arguelles-Chavez give them his money.
Bankett fired a warning shot and Ratcliff pushed Arguelles-Chavez, Yi said. Bankett then shot Arguelles-Chavez and he and Ratcliff took the money and gun and ran together to a getaway car.
Arguelles-Chavez’s wife and two children were sitting in the car with the window open a few inches away from him when the shooting happened, prosecutors said.
A few weeks after that on Feb. 1, police say Ratcliff, along with Williams and Duantae Jerome Terrell, who was 17 at the time, planned to rob a man near the Weatherstone Apartments in north Aurora.
In an arrest affidavit filed against Ratcliff, police said Terrell, who is being tried as an adult, told investigators he didn’t mean to shoot Williams. He said he accidentally shot her when the man they were trying to rob tried to run him over with an SUV. He and Ratcliff then fled the scene and were arrested after Ratcliff crashed his car several blocks away.
Terrell and Ratcliff are being tried separately and Terrell is also set for trial in May.