A Commerce City man who shot and killed a burglary suspect from his balcony in 2021 was sentenced to 28 years.

23-year-old William Schuette was sentenced on Friday by an Adams County judge. He was convicted of second-degree murder following a six-day trial on Aug. 7, according to a press release from the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

The incident occurred on Feb. 8, 2021. Commerce City police responded to the Haraf Foods Market on Belle Creek Boulevard just before 5 a.m. on reports of a burglary. Upon arrival, officers found the burglary suspect — later identified as 24-year-old James Martinez — dead from gunshot wounds in a vehicle that had crashed into others.

Investigations found that men had been burglarizing the market.

Schuette, a resident of a nearby apartment, told officers he shot at the suspects with a gun from his balcony, according to the arrest affidavit. He told officers “he was scared” after hearing the burglary in the store below him, so he “came out without clothes on and fired his firearm at the vehicle.”

Schuette fired an AR-15 rifle at Martinez’s vehicle as he was attempting to escape the scene, according to the press release. Martinez was struck twice and later pronounced deceased at the scene.

“It’s not the job of a man standing on his upstairs apartment balcony to pull out an assault rifle and open fire on a group of people in a car because he believes a crime is in progress,” District Attorney Brian Mason in the release. “This defendant had no right to take the law into his own hands and take another man’s life. I’m thankful the jury saw it the same way.”

The Denver Gazette’s news affiliate, 9News, contributed to this story