A Jefferson County jury has convicted a man of second-degree murder for shooting a 49-year-old fatally on a pedestrian path near Lakewood's RTD Wadsworth station last year. Adrian Slaughter now awaits sentencing after more than a year of legal proceedings that began just weeks after the killing.
The jury convicted Slaughter of second-degree murder, a Class 2 felony, according to The Denver Post. He had originally been charged with first-degree murder after deliberation, but the jury returned the lesser murder verdict following trial.
The shooting happened on a pedestrian path east of the Lakewood-Wadsworth station, north of the light rail tracks near Vance Street and West 13th Avenue, the outlet reported. Lakewood officers responded to the fatal shooting shortly after 10:15 p.m. on August 27, 2025.
RTD has included Lakewood-Wadsworth in a program that keeps station elevators open when they are not in use. During January through August 2025, calls for service at the station were down more than 72% from the same period in 2024, while reports of narcotics activity fell 83%, RTD said. Those figures concern calls associated with the program; they are not a measure of all crime at the station.
Surveillance Footage Captured the Attack
Joshua Green, 49, suffered gunshot wounds to his abdomen and right arm in the shooting. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital, where he later died, per the same account.
Surveillance video reviewed in the case showed Slaughter sitting near a fence on the path and talking to people nearby before he walked over to Green and shot him from several feet away, the report states. That footage became a key piece of evidence tying Slaughter to the killing.
Arrest Came Weeks Later, Conviction More Than a Year After
Slaughter was arrested three weeks after the shooting, and his conviction came more than a year after that arrest, the article notes. The case moved from initial charges of first-degree murder to a jury verdict of second-degree murder over that span.
Slaughter is scheduled to appear at a sentencing hearing on October 30, 2026, according to The Denver Post, when a judge will determine the punishment he faces for the Class 2 felony conviction. No additional details about sentencing recommendations, prior criminal history, or a motive for the shooting have been disclosed.
Colorado law defines second-degree murder as knowingly causing another person’s death, and the offense is treated as a crime of violence. For a Class 2 crime of violence, the state’s sentencing guide lists a range of 16 to 48 years in prison, followed by five years of mandatory parole; the ordinary Class 2 range is 8 to 24 years, followed by three years. The applicable sentencing rules shape the punishment the judge may impose, as laid out in Colorado’s second-degree murder statute and the state’s felony sentencing guide.
