Man gets 42 years in prison for murder in fatal Denver shooting
A man convicted of murder in December for fatally shooting a Denver woman in her apartment was sentenced Friday to more than four decades in prison, according to court records.
Ernest Cunningham, 53, shot and killed Kelsey Roberts, 23, at her home in southeast Denver in June 2024. Roberts lived in an apartment building in the 800 block of South Dexter Street.
Denver District Court Judge Karen Brody sentenced Cunningham on Friday to 42 years in prison after a Denver jury found Cunningham guilty of second-degree murder on Dec. 22, court records show.
Cunningham intended to confront Robert’s husband, but instead shot Roberts when she came to her front door, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office.
The husband previously told police that he did not like Cunningham because the man used drugs at work, according to Cunningham’s arrest affidavit. After Cunningham was fired, he began calling Roberts’ husband and threatening him, police said in the affidavit.
“Kelsey Roberts was a young woman with her whole life ahead of her,” Denver District Attorney John Walsh said in a video statement. “Ernest Cunningham took that life away from her brutally and senselessly.”
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