MONTROSE – A 20-year-old Colorado man has been sentenced 48 years in prison for the 2017 shooting death of a woman.
The Daily Sentinel reports that Joseph A. Saur was sentenced Monday on a charge of second-degree murder for the death of 27-year-old Patience R. Stewart, of Olathe.
While under the influence of methamphetamine, Saur initially told police he believed Stewart was his own father trying to break the law after obtaining a sex change when he shot Stewart on November 5, 2017, at her trailer.
District Attorney Dan Hotsenpiller says his office considered Saur’s troubled childhood, dysfunctional upbringing and evidence he was using meth at the time of the murder in extending a plea agreement on a reduced charge.
Saur initially was charged with first-degree murder in the case.
Saur called the victim his “good friend” and had been in an intimate relationship with Stewart who lived in a camper trailer in the backyard of Saur’s home, Hotsenpiller said.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
