In the summer of 2019, the life of 21-year-old Roderick Vecchiarelli was cut tragically short in a violent encounter. On the evening of June 17th, police in Lakewood, Colorado, responded to a call at 1550 Depew Street where they discovered two individuals had been shot. Roderick had sustained multiple gunshot wounds from which he would not recover. A second victim, a 49-year-old woman, was also found at the scene, having been shot several times in her legs, but she survived the brutal attack.
The investigation that followed revealed that the shooting was the culmination of a robbery. Witnesses at the scene reported seeing a vehicle speeding away immediately after the gunshots rang out. This crucial piece of information led law enforcement to a traffic accident in the nearby city of Edgewater involving a car that matched the description of the suspect vehicle. The driver was identified as Danny Carter and the passenger as Michelle Lee Prissel. Further investigation uncovered that two other individuals had been in the car and had fled the scene of the accident. These two were believed to be the ones who fired the shots.
Through the analysis of cell phone records and surveillance footage, investigators were able to identify one of the shooters as Christopher Michael Pride. He was apprehended in Colorado Springs on July 18, 2019. At the time of the murder, Pride was on both federal and supervised probation and had a significant criminal history. The second shooter was identified as Keshun Bastian.
In May 2021, a jury found Christopher Michael Pride guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Roderick Vecchiarelli, along with multiple counts of aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Keshun Bastian pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. The other two individuals involved, Danny Carter and Michelle Lee Prissel, were also held accountable for their roles in the crime.
