The man convicted in the 2021 murder of Dustin Stefan was sentenced to life in prison Friday, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office.

Denver Police responded to a call about a shooting at the Residence Inn at 2777 North Zuni Street on May 3, 2021 at 12:45 a.m. Police found Dustin Stefan, 34, with a gunshot wound to the head. Stefan was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead.

According to the arrest affidavit, Stefan was staying with a friend, John Jimenez, at the hotel and had been there for several weeks when the incident occurred. Jimenez told police that he left to buy a pack of cigarettes at the gas station when the shooting occurred.

Jimenez later admitted that, on his way to the gas station, he ran into Jessie James McGhee, 55, a drug dealer who sold fentanyl and meth. McGhee offered to smoke meth with Jimenez and Stefan and went back to the hotel room with Jimenez, according to the affidavit.

All three, including the victim, smoked meth. Later, McGhee and Stefan got into an argument “about knowing when they would die” the affidavit said.

McGhee went to the bathroom, coming back with a handgun and telling Stefan to get down. Jimenez hid, thinking McGhee was robbing them, while McGhee and Stefan fought. McGhee shot Stefan in the head and fled the room, the affidavit said.

A witness in the room across the hall said she heard yelling followed by bangs that sounded like a slamming door. She then saw someone running down the stairs through her peephole, according to police.

Stefan’s autopsy results showed a single gunshot wound to his left ear, where the bullet entered Stefan’s skull, according to Forensic Pathologist Dr. Meredith Frank, M.D.

On Sept. 30, a Denver jury found McGhee guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated robbery and robbery. On Friday, Judge Jennifer B. Torrington sentenced McGhee to life in prison with no possibility of parole.