Colorado man who stabbed and killed 2 homeless men in Aurora sentenced to 80 years in prison

A Colorado judge on Monday sentenced a man who killed two people in Aurora in two separate attacks on a single day last year to 80 years in prison.

The sentencing took place shortly after Ricky Roybal Smith pleaded guilty to the killings of Jesse Shafer, 27, and Scott Davenport, 61 in June. Both men, who police described as being homeless, were stabbed to death in an area around East Colfax Avenue. One was killed in an alley and another was killed in a bus shelter.

Smith, 38, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.

Adams County District Attorney Brian Mason called the murders "acts of extreme violence."

"Today's sentence holds the defendant accountable for the lives he took and for the fear and trauma he inflicted on our community," Mason said in a prepared statement.

Smith also faces murder charges in a separate Colorado case in which he is accused of killing his cellmate in the Denver Jail. Vincent Chacon, 34, was killed in the jail on June 30. A case was also recently filed against Smith in the killing of Margaret Eberhart in 2022 in Arapahoe County. She was attacked outside of the Englewood Civic Center after she got out of a rideshare vehicle and died a few days afterwards.