Adams County Defendant Convicted of Murder After Fatally Shooting Victim for Attempting to End Relationship

Brighton, CO — Today, District Attorney Brian Mason is announcing the First-Degree Murder conviction of Ricardo Perales-Cordero, 33, following a multi-week jury trial in Adams County District Court. After a lengthy trial, the jury returned its guilty verdict in less than two hours.  

In March 2022, the victim in this case separated from her partner of 12 years and met Ricardo Perales-Cordero online. The defendant and the victim engaged in a long-distance relationship as Perales-Cordero lived in Houston, Texas. A few days before the homicide, the victim attempted to end the relationship with the defendant.  

Several days later, Perales-Cordero traveled to Brighton from Houston and on October 19, 2022, the victim and Perales-Cordero met at the Quality Inn along Brighton Road in Brighton. Employees at the hotel heard an argument and then two gunshots. They saw Perales-Cordero hurriedly leave the hotel and take off in his vehicle. When they entered the hotel room, they found the victim dead on the bed with a large gunshot wound to the head.  

Perales-Cordero was later apprehended in Trinidad, Colorado. The defendant admitted to shooting the victim but said she asked him to do so as part of a suicide pact since the two could not be together. Ultimately, the jury convicted Perales-Cordero of First-Degree Murder, and he was sentenced to Life in Prison Without the Possibility of Parole, as mandated by Colorado law.  

“This defendant, rather than let the victim return to her children, murdered her in cold blood in a Brighton hotel,” said District Attorney Brian Mason. “It is heartbreaking to see another incident of domestic violence take the life of a mother, who now leaves behind her children and family. I am grateful to the Brighton Police Department for their work on this case, to my team for their effective prosecution, and to the jury for their willingness to sit through this lengthy trial and to deliver a just verdict.” 

Chief Deputy District Attorney Allyson Baber and Senior Deputy District Attorney J.P. McCarty led the prosecution of this case.  

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