Teen pleads guilty to 2nd-degree murder in 2024 stabbing death of 14-year-old Jackson Davis
Plea deal would give Nefi Ezequiel Armijo Hernandez five years in Youth Offender System
Eighteen-year-old Nefi Ezequiel Armijo Hernandez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Wednesday following the negotiation of a plea deal that would see him sentenced to seven years in Colorado’s Youth Offender system.
Hernandez pleaded guilty to unlawfully, feloniously and knowingly causing the death of 14-year-old Jackson Davis on or about April 24, 2024. Jackson Davis died in Denver on April 25, 2024, of stab wounds sustained a day earlier during a brawl at Second Street Park in Gypsum, a forensic pathologist said during a hearing in December.
Hernandez was taken into custody shortly after the incident occurred and has remained incarcerated since. He would receive credit for the more than two years he has already served, reducing his sentence to fewer than five years if Judge Rachel Olguin-Fresquez agrees to the sentencing.
But Olguin-Fresquez told Hernandez on Wednesday that she is not obligated to agree to those terms.
“If, for whatever reason, I don’t follow through on the sentence that is stipulated by the parties, you would have the opportunity to withdraw your plea,” she said. “I’m not saying I won’t, I’m not saying I will.”
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The plea deal wasn’t acceptable by Davis’ mother, Christy Davis, who wrote a letter to the court indicating her frustration.
Davis said she would have preferred the court to continue to seek first-degree murder, which Hernandez was initially charged with. That charge, along with all others, would be dropped in exchange for the judge accepting Hernandez’s plea of guilty to second-degree murder and approving the sentencing.
“The court has received the letters indicating the concerns about the plea agreement,” Olguin-Fresquez said. “I need to make sure that I know whether this is the available sentence and whether or not I agree with it.”
While Hernandez is now an adult, he was a minor when the charges against him were filed, and he was later charged as an adult. Cases falling within those circumstances require additional considerations, including potentially reduced sentences and/or the option to serve in Colorado’s Youthful Offender System, said District Attorney Heidi McCollum.
The Colorado Department of Corrections describes the Youthful Offender System as “a comprehensive model that delivers rehabilitation programs and services, preparing individuals for successful re-entry while ensuring public safety,” and says it consists of an orientation training phase, an institutional phase, a prerelease phase and a community supervision phase.
Olguin-Fresquez said she will order a pre-sentence investigation report to consider before sentencing, which should take about six weeks.
A sentencing hearing has been set for 9 a.m. on July 24.
This story was edited to reflect the proper date of the sentencing hearing.
