DENVER – An Arapahoe County jury this week convicted a 20-year-old Aurora man of shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in May 2019.
The jury found Joseph McCaughin guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of 16-year-old Ryan Robertson on May 6, 2019 near Wagon Trail Park.
According to prosecutors, earlier on the day of the shooting, McCaughin broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home earlier that day and told her he would kill her and Robertson if he ever saw Robertson again.
The two came across each other that evening as Robertson was walking near the park with two friends. After a verbal exchange, McCaughin fired a gun at Robertson at least six times, hitting him twice. He then ran from the scene.
Robertson died from his injuries, and McCaughin fled to Georgia, where he was arrested eight days later.
Prosecutors said McCaughin specifically went looking for Robertson that evening and that he lied to both police and his mother about what happened, telling them he was at Southlands Mall at the time. But cell phone records put him at the scene of the shooting.
McCaughin is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 9. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
