A man has been sentenced to five years in Colorado’s youth offender system for his involvement in a shooting on Flagstaff Road in 2023.

Josue Esai Hernandez-Gonzalez, 19, pleaded guilty in August to one count of attempted second-degree murder. All other counts were dismissed.

He received five years in the youthful offender system with a suspended 15-year prison sentence if he doesn’t comply. He received 343 days of credit for time served.

A booking photo of Hernandez-Gonzalez is not available since he was a minor at the time of the incident. The District Attorney’s Office charged Hernandez-Gonzalez as an adult due to “the premeditated nature of the shooting and the people shot,” according to the release.

In a sentencing hearing Friday morning, Deputy District Attorney Carlos Rueda said Hernandez-Gonzalez was extremely lucky that the no one died in this case. Rueda added that the plea deal was drafted with the recognition of Hernandez-Gonzalez’s age and the fact that the shooter was his brother.

“Without him helping his brother doing the shooting, there would be no shooting,” Rueda said.

Rueda explained that one of the victims lost his scholarship to pay basketball in college. The victim’s father added that his son also dreamed of following the family tradition of serving in the armed forces, which he would no longer be able to do.

“My son has lost a lot in his life because of this individual and I know this individual will have to pay for this for the rest of his life as well,” Dave Gomez said. “I just want him to understand that what he did, it was a cowardly act.”

Hernandez-Gonzalez said he understand that he caused a lot of harm and reacted off very poor choices.

“I do want to apologize to the victim and the families, the community,” Hernandez-Gonzalez said. “I’m still learning from my mistakes. I do believe that God is forgiving and when the time comes to get out, I plan to better myself and better what I have going for myself. I just want to apologize to the victims and the family.”

Boulder District Judge Dea Lindsey told Hernandez-Gonzalez he had lots of opportunities to change his mind and he was very lucky someone wasn’t killed.

“Mr. Hernandez, I’ve said this once already today, but when you’re this young and you’re brown this follows you by design, by the fact you are a brown man,” Lindsey said.

She later added, “What I want you to consider is you have a higher burden and what I mean by that is you have to be, you have to work harder and try harder else this wont be the end of your criminal situation.”

Lindsey said she believes people are not the product of the worst thing they ever do.

“You have people that care about you that want to see you succeed and I don’t see that everyday,” Lindsey said. “My expectation is that you will be great.”

Jafet Hernandez-Gonzalez, 23, the defendant’s older brother and co-defendant, accepted a plea deal in October in which he pleaded guilty to one count of attempted second-degree murder, according to court records. All other counts including seven counts of attempted first-degree murder were dismissed. He is still awaiting sentencing on Dec. 17.

According to the release, on May 12, 2023, a group of young adults left a graduation party in a Cadillac Escalade and traveled to Flagstaff Mountain. The Escalade crashed on Flagstaff and was no longer drivable. In a second car, Jafet Hernandez-Gonzalez arrived to help before getting into a verbal confrontation with the driver of the Escalade.

Jafet Hernandez-Gonzalez drove away and got a gun before returning with his brother to the mountain. According to the release, other people by that time had arrived to help those in the Escalade.

Josue Hernandez-Gonzalez drove past the group twice before slowing down the third time. While passing, Jafet Hernandez-Gonzalez fired multiple rounds at the group — shooting the Escalade driver and another victim. The release said both victims survived their injuries but the indictment notes that one victim sustained serious bodily injury.

Jafet Hernandez-Gonzalez’s cellphone was tracked as being in the location of the shooting at the time is occurred. His cellphone record also confirmed he met up for a gun exchange.