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Left: Clemente Flores-Hernandez (Denver Police Department). Right: Karol Ximena Bedoya (Obituary).
A Colorado man will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for murdering his girlfriend while she was watching TV with her grandson.
On Tuesday, Clemente Flores-Hernandez, 45, pleaded guilty to one count each of second-degree murder and first-degree assault by strangulation, the Denver District Attorney’s Office announced in a press release. Several additional charges were dropped.
The defendant was quickly sentenced to 48 years in prison for the murder charge and 12 years in prison for the assault charge. The judge assessed the two sentences to run consecutively, or, one after another, for a combined 60-year sentence.
Punishment in the case comes two years after the fatal incident.
Just after 8 p.m. on the night of Feb. 24, 2023, Flores-Hernandez burst into a residence on Durham Court. Inside, the assailant fired four shots at close range into Karol Bedoya, 44, as she sat next to the 2-year-old boy on the couch in the living room. The killer and his victim had been in a romantic relationship for 10 years prior to the shooting.
The mother of four was found dead at the scene.
Responding officers with the Denver Police Department soon learned the young child had been taken by the man, authorities said.
In response to the gunshots, Bedoya’s adult son ran upstairs from the basement and saw Flores-Hernandez moving toward him with the murder weapon still in hand, prosecutors said. The father of the 2-year-old said multiple rounds were fired at him that narrowly missed, according to a report by Denver-based Fox and CW affiliate KDVR.
The two fought it out until the defendant ultimately strangled the young man nearly to the point of collapse. Then, Flores-Hernandez grabbed the toddler and absconded.
The woman’s son, however, followed the wayward man — helping law enforcement ascertain the defendant’s location.
A high-speed chase ensued along Interstate 70. Eventually, Adams County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Colorado State Patrol troopers deployed Stop Sticks — a brand of tire-deflation device — to bring the fleeing car to a stop. Flores-Hernandez was taken into custody near Strasburg — a small town roughly 30 miles east of Denver.
The little boy was recovered and physically unharmed.
The deceased woman’s brother-in-law told the TV station that the warning signs were technically there — but came with little notice.
“I saw her almost every day and she didn’t tell us anything,” the man told KDVR in the aftermath of the slaying. “A week prior to all of this, she broke down and cried here at the house. She just broke down and told us that she was unhappy and wanted him to go away.”
Bedoya was a self-proclaimed “soccer mom” who lived her life to make sure her children succeeded, her family said.
“She did everything for me and my brothers,” the father of the 2-year-old told the TV station through tears.
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A GoFundMe is continuing to accept donations to help take care of Bedoya’s children.
“Karol Bedoya’s murder is yet another terrible reminder of the tragic toll domestic violence takes on our community and our families,” Denver District Attorney John Walsh said in a statement. “We hope that today’s guilty plea and sentence provide some measure of comfort to Karol’s family and friends.”
In exchange for Flores-Hernandez’s guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges of first-degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree attempted murder, second-degree assault by strangulation, kidnapping, vehicular eluding and child abuse.