After fatally shooting a woman with an assault rifle that was stolen, a man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release.
While Isabella Thallas was walking her dog Rocko close to Michael Close’s residence in Denver, Colorado in 2020, he shot her and tried to kill her lover Darian Simon.
When Isabella encouraged her dog to relieve himself on the grass outside of his apartment, the trio got into a fight. Are you going to train your dog, or are you just going to yell at it? he yelled.
Darian advised him to behave himself and mentioned that Rocko was a fine dog.
Close fired 25 shots at them using the AK-47 that belonged to his pal, police sergeant Dan Politica.
Darian was struck twice but survived, but Isabella passed away immediately. After the incident, Sergeant Politica ultimately decided to resign, according to the Denver Post.
Close hid in the mountains until being apprehended on Highway 285 as he fled the scene while carrying an AK-47 and a handgun.
He had told his ex-girlfriend earlier that day that one of his dogs had been attacked in a neighbouring dog park and he was going to kill the owners.
Close claimed insanity as a defence, stating a nervous breakdown brought on by a traumatic event she had as a kid, the loss of multiple jobs, and the continuous Covid pandemic.
Sonja Prins, his attorney, stated: “He disassociated. He was not within his own head. He gave no thought to anything. He experienced a mental breakdown and was acting erratically.
Prosecutors countered that he was acting with knowledge, and a court-appointed physician concluded that despite having sadness and having thought about suicide, the man was not criminally insane.
A jury concluded that Close was guilty of all charges after just under three hours of deliberation. As the verdict was announced, the shooter sobbed and hung his head.
According to Isabella’s father Joshua, “There are no winners in this.” We return home after this, and I still don’t have my daughter. Our family is poor.
