A Greeley man will spend four decades in prison after pleading guilty to shooting and killing his girlfriend in December 2024.

Gabriel Esparza, 24, entered his guilty plea for second-degree murder of his girlfriend at the time, Sierra Nicole Mininger, 24, during a hearing Friday afternoon. He was sentenced to 40 years in the Colorado Department of Correction by Weld County District Court Judge Shannon Douglas Lyons.

Esparza was accused of fatally shooting Mininger, on Dec. 8, 2024, in the 300 block of 9th Avenue in Greeley. During the Friday hearing, he admitted to shooting Mininger and said he is accepting of the consequences of his actions.

Many members of the Mininger family read their impact statements, emphasizing that her life was taken too soon, that they live with “irreparable,

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