Adre Baroz, Known as "Psycho," Gets Five Life Terms for the San Luis Valley Murders
An Alamosa judge called Baroz "pure evil" and sentenced him for killing five people over seven weeks in 2020 and burning their remains in Conejos County.
Published
In a courtroom in Alamosa on Friday, May 3, 2024, District Judge Michael Gonzales told Adre Baroz that he was "pure evil," words the judge said he had never used in any criminal case before. Then he sentenced the 29-year-old, who went by the name "Psycho," to five consecutive life terms in prison, one for each of the people he killed in Colorado's San Luis Valley over seven weeks in the fall of 2020.
Baroz had pleaded guilty earlier in the year to five counts of first-degree murder, along with assault, kidnapping and tampering with human remains. The dead were Korina Arroyo, 31, of Monte Vista; Myron Martinez, 38, of Del Norte; Shayla Hammel, 20, of Alamosa; Selena Esquibel, 19, of Alamosa; and Xavier Zeven Garcia, 24, of Saguache. Prosecutors said Baroz dismembered his victims and threw their bodies into burn pits in Conejos County, leaving investigators scant remains with which to identify them.
The killings came to light in November 2020, when human remains were found on two properties in the Los Sauces area of Conejos County, and Baroz was arrested after a manhunt. Investigators said his first victim was Esquibel, whom he killed because he believed she was telling people he had raped her. Arroyo disappeared in August 2020, before she was due to testify at a trial.
Two men who helped him were sentenced the same day. His older brother, Julius Baroz, received 25 years in prison. Francisco Ramirez, who helped dispose of and burn the remains of several victims, received three eight-year terms, 24 years in all, for tampering with a deceased body.
"The depravity exhibited by this one man and the men that assisted him is unlike anything this community has ever seen," said Anne Kelly, district attorney for the 12th Judicial District, whose office brought in prosecutors from Boulder County to try the case. She said no sentence could measure the pain of the families who lost someone. "This is devastating, absolutely devastating," she said. "I don't think words can really summarize how it would feel to lose a family member, not only lose a family member, but in this tragic and awful way."
Reports differ on the charge to which Julius Baroz pleaded guilty: one account says attempted first-degree murder, while court documents cited by The Colorado Sun describe it as conspiracy to commit murder.
Sources
- San Luis Valley serial killer nicknamed "Psycho" sentenced to life in prison, The Colorado Sun (Olivia Prentzel)
- San Luis Valley serial killer sentenced to 5 life sentences for dismembering and burning bodies, KRDO (Sean Rice)