Judge resentences Weston homicide defendant to 9 years in prison

Aleesha Rae Duran, 26, was resentenced Tuesday, June 16, to nine years in the Colorado Department of Corrections after a Las Animas County judge concluded she had spent years failing to take advantage of chances to stay out of prison. The sentence ends the probationary path that had kept Duran in the community after the 2018 Weston homicide of Armando Gallegos, who was 19 when he died.

The shooting happened just after noon on Saturday, November 24, 2018, in the 17000 block of County Road 18.6, about 22 miles west of Trinidad. Deputies with the Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for help after two residents were shot inside a home in Weston. Gallegos was flown to a Colorado Springs hospital and died there. A woman inside the home was also shot and hospitalized with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

Three people were arrested in the shooting: Oscar Botello Jr., Aleesha Duran and John Kindle. They were first held in the Las Animas County Jail without bond. Botello later resolved his case with a 38-year prison sentence for second-degree murder and a three-year sentence for second-degree assault, to be served concurrently. Duran originally received probation instead of an immediate prison term, but that ended after later court problems, including a January 2026 arrest for failure to appear. By the time of Tuesday’s resentencing, the judge had concluded that Duran had been given repeated opportunities to remain free and had not met the court’s expectations.

Gallegos, Armando Josiah Gallegos of Weston, left behind parents, a brother, grandmother, aunt, uncle and extended family.