Jayque Owens sentenced to 58 years in prison after pleading guilty to 2 murders
A judge sentenced Jayque Owens to 58 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections for the murders of two people nearly three years ago. Owens, 18, pleaded guilty to the July 5, 2020 murder of Yaun Yae Long, 23, in a liquor store parking lot.
He also pleaded guilty to the July 7, 2020 murder of Kalani Hayter who was shot and killed in a car.
At the time, Owens was 16 years old. He pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced on May 1.
"Charging a juvenile as an adult is something we take extremely seriously because the juvenile brain is still developing and young people can be very impulsive and susceptible to peer influence," said Denver DA Beth McCann in a statement. "In this case, Jayque Owens deliberately planned these murders and his actions rippled through Denver's Montbello community affecting its youth in particular. We simply cannot allow that in a civil society."
