An Adams County jury deliberated for just three-and-a-half hours Wednesday before members found Jeremy Webster guilty on all 20+ charges in a June 2018 road rage incident that left a 13-year-old boy dead, and his mother and younger brother, as well as a witness, wounded. 

Those charges included first-degree murder with extreme indifference in Vaughn Bigelow’s murder and attempted second-degree murder in the cases of Meghan and Asa Bigelow and witness John Gale. 

The trial lasted two weeks. 

17th Judicial District Judge Priscilla Loew immediately sentenced Webster to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 192 years. That was the maximum sentence for the 22 charges he was convicted of.

Denver Gazette news partner 9News reported that Webster drank from a water bottle and showed no reaction as the sentence was read. 

He declined to offer any statements after his attorney told the court he plans to appeal. 

The verdict was exactly what Vaughn Bigelow’s mother, Meghan, had hoped for.

“This part can be closed, but that doesn’t mean we’ll ever get Bubba back,” she said at the sentencing. “All of his friends are graduating high school and going to college. Every time I get one of those graduation cards, I burst into tears.” 

“On June 14, 2018, Mr. Webster brought destruction, carnage and terror to two families and the entire Adams County community,” said District Attorney Brian Mason in a release. “Today, nearly five years later, a jury of his peers has brought justice to Mr. Webster.

“Mr. Webster’s actions that day were unconscionable and horrific. He literally sought to execute an entire family, killing a child and inflicting devastating wounds on the rest — and then seeking to kill a witness who watched the first execution happen.”

When Jeremy Webster, now 28, was arrested on suspicion of killing Vaughn Bigelow, he was asked if he knew the difference between right and wrong. He answered it was an ambiguous question, but told the investigator what he did was pure evil. The exchange, captured during Webster’s initial interrogation video, was played by prosecutors during the closing arguments in Webster’s murder trial Wednesday.

Webster had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to shooting the mother and two of her sons, killing Vaughn Bigelow with a point-blank shot to the head after the family pulled into the parking lot of a suburban Denver dental office in June 2018. Webster had followed mother Meghan Bigelow to the parking lot after she allegedly cut him off in traffic, infuriating him, according to prosecutors.

The case was put in the hands of an Adams County jury at around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

But Webster’s attorney said he suffered from mental illness from the time he was 4 years old.

“He wishes that what happened on that day never happened. He talks about feeling blindsided. He feels physically sickened about it,” said criminal defense attorney Rachel Oliver. “He didn’t have personal recollection of the incident. That’s his true experience. That’s what happened here. That’s why we’re asking that instead of sending him to a prison, that you find him not guilty by reason of insanity so that he can continue treatment.”

Meghan Bigelow and then 7-year-old Asa spent weeks in the hospital with critical injuries. Webster was also convicted of wounding Gale, who was shot after prosecutors contend Webster “locked eyes” with him. Gale was in his truck with his 9-year-old daughter, waiting for an appointment when the melee that shocked many Colorado residents transpired. 

For the Bigelow family, June 14, 2018 started out as a lazy summer day. 

Meghan Bigelow had taken her three boys, Vaughn, Asa and Cooper, 11, for smoothies and a dip in a pool. They were on their way to combined dental appointments when, on a construction-clogged street, they heard sirens near 92nd Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard, and started to get out of the way.

Meghan Bigelow testified that she crossed into Webster’s lane and put up a hand to say she was sorry, but he started cussing at her through his open car window.  

Once the family kept driving and turned into the parking lot, where all three boys had dental appointments, tensions rose as Webster followed them and got out of his car to confront Meghan Bigelow. He left, but circled back when he realized she recorded his exit on cellphone video. 

That’s when he pulled out a gun and shot four people, killing the Bigelow’s oldest child. 

Webster’s insanity plea required prosecutors to prove that he was sane at the time of the shooting — that he knew the difference between right and wrong and was able to make decisions.

Much of the evidence in the trial hinged on the opinions of mental health professionals. 

Psychologist Christina Gliser concluded after interviewing Webster twice that he was legally sane at the time of the shooting, in touch with reality and able to make decisions.

Another psychologist, who saw Webster 77 times off and on from the ages of 4-18, told the jury that he didn’t think that a personality disorder diagnosis was appropriate for Webster. According to the doctor, Webster’s family moved to Colorado in part because marijuana had become legal and Webster was “into it as a sacred plant.” 

Wednesday’s verdict wrapped up a trial that took years to get underway. It was originally scheduled for July 2021 but was delayed multiple times due to questions surrounding Webster’s mental health and the COVID-19 pandemic. In Oct. 2021, the judge declared a mistrial when a key witness couldn’t travel from out of state to testify because of a medical issue.

While Oliver, the defense attorney, pleaded with the jury that Webster needed treatment, not prison, prosecutors reminded them that his actions destroyed a family.

“I have no doubt that once Mr. Webster was arrested, he felt like it wasn’t real,” said prosecutor Jess Redman. “You know who else felt like it wasn’t real? The victims. Of a shooting at a dentist’s office.”

The Associated Press and 9News contributed to this story.