Gunman who killed 10 people at Colorado grocery store sentenced to life in prison without parole

Boulder, Colorado
CNN
—

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, who killed 10 people in a March 22, 2021, rampage at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole, hours after a jury rejected his insanity claim and convicted him of first-degree murder.

The sentence was handed down after several hours during which the victims’ families made impact statements in the courtroom.

In addition to the 10 murder counts, Alissa, 25, was found guilty of 45 other charges, including attempted murder, assault and use of a prohibited high-capacity magazine in the commission of a felony. The jury deliberated for just over five and a half hours over two days.

Alissa’s lawyers have not denied that he committed the shooting. To determine whether he was legally insane at the time of the shooting, jurors had to determine whether they believed he was capable of forming intent or distinguishing right from wrong.

Speaking before the sentencing on Monday afternoon, Nikolina Stanisic, whose 23-year-old brother Neven was killed in the shooting, described her brother as “a caring, kind and selfless person”.

He was “the first joy, the first happiness, but also the first sadness and the first sorrow of their parents,” she said.

“Our life without Neven is not a complete life,” she continued. “There is always someone missing.”

Over the past few weeks, jurors in Boulder County District Court have heard 10 days of testimony, during which the prosecution has argued that despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia after the shooting, Alissa was legally sane when he carried out the attack.

The shooter was found unfit to stand trial in 2021, but was later found competent in 2023 after undergoing treatment at a state hospital.

“The evidence in this case is straightforward. What happened on March 22, 2021, is not a mystery; it was on video,” Assistant District Attorney Ken Kupfner said in his closing argument, before reviewing all the charges Alissa faces and highlighting actions that prosecutors say prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he acted “with deliberation and intent.”

Alissa is not “someone who is crazy. … Someone who thinks a mass shooting is funny, he’s sick. We agree that he’s mentally ill. He’s schizophrenic, but he’s not crazy,” Kupfner said.

Alissa’s attorney, Kathryn Herold, told the jury in her closing argument that “this tragedy was caused by illness, not by choice.”

“Mr. Alissa committed these crimes because he was psychotic and delusional on March 22, 2021,” Herold said. “We also know that without the psychosis he suffered, this tragedy would never have occurred.”

Many of the victims’ family members appeared in court and became emotional and tearful as the verdict was announced. Before Alissa’s sentencing, several family members paid heartbreaking tributes to their loved ones and described the pain they have endured since the shooting.

“The images of my son’s brains and blood splattered on the floor of a grocery store will stay with me forever,” Shay Talley said. Her son, Eric Talley, a Boulder police officer, was shot and killed in the shooting. “But I always choose to forgive. Eric would have wanted us to forgive. He was a very forgiving person.”

“We want the shooter to know that this murder changed us,” said Margie Whittington, whose daughter, Teri Leiker, was killed.

“We will never be the same. We will never get over losing him, especially in such a horrible way.”

“Life after Teri has been devastating, but we are not devastated,” she continued.

Olivia MacKenzie, who lost her mother, Lynn Murray, asked for a life sentence for Alissa.

“He sentenced us to life in prison, depriving us of our family,” she said. “Why should it be any different?”

“I felt, and still feel, like the luckiest girl in the world to have been so lucky to be her child,” she said of her mother.

Erika Mahoney, whose father, Kevin Mahoney, was killed, said she hoped for an apology from Alissa.

“If we never denied that he did it, then where are the apologies?” she asked. “A single iota of remorse from them or his family would have gone a long way. The door is always open.”

Speaking directly to Alissa, she said, “I’m sorry for your past, present, and future suffering. Like I said earlier, I wish you had more love.”

An older brother of Alissa, who did not give his name, spoke to CNN affiliate KUSA after the verdict was read. He described his brother as “quiet,” if sometimes “antisocial,” and said the family did not know he was schizophrenic. “They would never have thought in their entire lives that he was capable of doing something like this.”

“From the bottom of our hearts, we’re truly sorry, as a family, we’re truly sorry,” he said. “I wish we could turn back time, but there’s no way to do that.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.