A 51-year-old Aurora man was sentenced to more than four decades in prison after killing a Cherry Creek School District teacher he had previously dated.
Eric Cobain pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a domestic violence factual basis earlier this year for fatally shooting Melissa Wright. Judge Nikea Bland handed down the 48-year sentence to Cobain, the Denver District Attorney’s Office announced on Monday.
Wright, 41, was a math teacher at I-Team Manor, an alternative high school, according to KDVR. Her family called her funny and kind, and they told the TV station that she had a big impact on her students.
Denver police found Wright dead in her apartment after responding to calls of gunshots in a Lowry Field-area complex on May 28, 2021, according to arrest documents that were previously sealed.
In police interviews conducted with other residents in the complex, several people reported hearing gunshot sounds coming from Wright’s apartment and had either seen or heard a man who left her apartment that night, the arrest affidavit stated. One person reported hearing the man yelling obscenities and the woman in the apartment crying.
During an autopsy, Wright was found to have bruising, fractures in one arm and one leg, and gunshot wounds.
One person told police that Wright and Cobain had been in an “on-again, off-again” relationship, while another described the couple’s relationship as “volatile.” Police also received information from a woman who said she received a text message in the early morning hours from Cobain saying he did something “God awful” that he regretted, but when she called him, his phone was off.
Cobain was arrested May 29, 2021, in the 700 block of Kipling Street in Lakewood.
“Melissa Wright’s death was a terrible tragedy that should remind us all that there is still much work to be done to address the issue of domestic violence,” said Denver District Attorney Beth McCann in a statement. “I hope this sentence will provide some comfort to Melissa’s family.”
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