Rufino Perez, a 54-year-old Hispanic/Latino male, died on November 27, 2016 in Denver, Colorado. In the early morning hours, he was at a house party in the 5500 block of North Carson Street in northeast Denver when a dispute erupted between him and another guest, 32-year-old Salvador Vargas. During the initial confrontation, Vargas was shot and slightly wounded; Perez’s firearm was then taken away by Vargas’s wife.
Minutes later, Vargas retrieved a different gun from his wife’s purse and fired multiple times, fatally wounding Perez. An obituary later recorded Perez’s passing that day in Denver.
Police and prosecutors quickly focused on Vargas. He was charged in December 2016 with first-degree murder and, after a four-day jury trial in June 2017, was convicted of second-degree murder. On August 11, 2017, a Denver District Court judge sentenced Vargas to 48 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections and ordered him to pay $13,010 in restitution. The case records from the Denver District Attorney detail the sequence at the party, the recovery of Perez’s gun by Vargas’s wife, and Vargas’s subsequent use of another weapon to kill Perez in retaliation.
