A 19-year-old man who, along with two others, was accused of killing an older man and injuring three teenagers in Durango in 2023, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and other felony charges in 6th Judicial District Court on Friday.
Justin Lee Maez, 19, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree assault in addition to second-degree murder for his involvement in the shooting at Santa Rita Park the night of Oct. 23, 2023.
Maez, along with Dominic Baker-Alires and Kayden Jacob Hernandez, each faced 20 felony charges for the incident that resulted in the death of Rodney D. Bellino, 47. Maez and Hernandez, both 17 at the time, were charged as adults.
Now, Maez faces 45 years in prison – the same sentence Baker-Alires received last year for the same charges.
Flanked between two defense attorneys on Friday, Maez swiveled anxiously in his chair as 6th Judicial District Judge Reid Stewart read him the terms of his plea agreement.
Twenty-one years for murder in the second degree. Twelve years for the first count of assault in the first degree and 12 years for the second. All to be served consecutively – one after the other.
The night of Oct. 23, 2023, Baker-Alires drove Maez and Hernandez to Santa Rita Park, according Maez’s plea agreement. Maez was looking for a fight, and he knew the person he’d be fighting would have others with him.
When they reached the park, the three exited the car – Maez with a 1911 platform .45 caliber pistol loaded with two to four live rounds; Baker-Alires with an “AR-15 platform carbine rifle chambered in 5.56/.223,” the agreement said. A semiautomatic Glock .40 caliber pistol and loaded magazines were also in the car.
Maez said in the agreement he hoped the guns he and Baker-Alires had would scare the other group away. But when one person stepped toward him, he and Baker-Alires fired at the group.
“Rodney Bellino was struck by a bullet in the head and died,” the statement said. It concluded: “… (The teenage victims) were struck with bullets and suffered penetrating gunshot wounds. I could see several people trying to evade gunfire as Dominic Baker-Alires and I fired the weapons towards the group.”
Bellino, a single parent, left two sons behind on his death, according to testimony during Baker-Alines’s sentencing.
One of the teenagers shot and injured that day was 15 years old. Two others were 17.
Damian Wiebe, one victim, said in a victim impact statement at Baker-Alines’ sentencing he spent months with a hole the size of a tennis ball in his back relearning how to walk.
Hernandez initially pleaded not guilty in July 2025.
Sixth Judicial District Attorney Sean Murray said on Friday that Hernandez ended up pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to six years in Colorado’s Youthful Offender System, which offers rehabilitative programming, and a 20-year suspended Department of Corrections sentence. Should Hernandez fail to complete the YOS sentence, he would receive 20 years in prison.
Murray said Hernandez got out of the car and threw a gun after the shooting in Santa Rita Park, but his involvement was not as severe as Maez’s or Baker-Alires’.
Maez’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. Aug. 10.
“The District Attorney’s Office is thankful to our partners at the Durango Police Department for their excellent investigation on these cases,” Murray said. “We hope that the resolution of the final case provides the victims with some measure of closure.”
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