DENVER ― A broccoli-peddling drug dealer has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for opening fire on buyers who protested they’d been scammed.
Sababu Colbert-Evans, 26, was sentenced to 16 years in prison, to be followed by five years on parole, for attempted first-degree murder with extreme indifference, distributing an imitation controlled substance and reckless endangerment. His partner, Tercell Davis, who went by the alias “22 Jump Street,” pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder and is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 7.
The two men fired 11 shots at two irate marijuana buyers outside a shopping mall food court last year, hitting one of the customers in the torso, authorities said. The wounded man eventually recovered, the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office said.
“This may be the first time that broccoli has been bad for someone’s health,” District Attorney George Brauchler said in a statement. “And no matter the reason, anyone who is convicted of trying to murder someone in our community will go to prison.”
According to the DA’s office, Davis met the buyers in the eastern Denver suburb of Aurora on March 14, 2016, for a marijuana deal.
The buyers handed over $10,000.
Davis handed over some broccoli he’d purchased hours earlier from a nearby grocery store.
Later that day, the buyers realized they’d been duped. Undaunted, they got back in touch with Davis, using a different name, and set up another marijuana deal for the following evening, hoping to either trade the broccoli for marijuana or recover their money.
Sure enough, Davis and Colbert-Evans showed up for the meeting, in a parking lot outside a mall food court. They had another load of broccoli.
An argument ensued, at which point Davis and Colbert-Evans fired 11 bullets outside the Aurora Town Center mall, authorities said.
“The defendant’s decision to open fire in the mall parking lot during business hours could easily have seriously injured or killed people arriving at or departing from the mall ― which included adults and children,” Deputy District Attorney Michael Mauro, who tried the case, said in a release. “The verdict and sentence in this case represent a just outcome.”
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