AURORA, Colo. — A 17-year-old was sentenced to 48 years in prison this week for the 2019 shooting death of a man in Aurora, officials said.
Xavion Daewayne Johnson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on May 5, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office.
Gayland Delanore Allen Jr., 24, was reported missing on Dec. 28, 2019, from the 1400 block of South Salem Way in Aurora. His body was found on the side of a road in Jefferson County several days later.
Investigators learned that Allen had met up with a girl in Aurora to sell her marijuana, officials said.
The girl brought three other teens with her, and when Allen got into the car to make the deal, one of the juveniles shot him.
The juveniles drove Allen's body to Lookout Mountain in Jefferson County, and Johnson threw Allen over a guardrail, officials said. One teen involved in the incident told police that Johnson was upset after his cousin died in a shooting at an Aurora mall on Dec. 27, 2019, one day before they met with Allen.
"I'm going to catch a body tonight, and I don't care who it is," Johnson told the other teens, according to investigators.
Andrew Steers, the chief deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, said Allen's death was "completely senseless."
"There is no justice for the life that was taken," Steers said. "The defendant was just looking for someone to murder."
Two of the other teens involved in the incident were sentenced through the Division of Youth Services and a third teen is set to be sentenced in July.
During Johnson's sentencing, Allen's mother told the judge, "Their choices can never be taken back."
"Why didn't one person say, 'This is wrong?'" a friend of Allen's told the judge. "They knew right from wrong ... they should be held accountable."
