DENVER — A Montana man was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday for attempted first-degree murder after allegedly shooting three people sleeping outside a Loveland Safeway in August 2023.
Aaron Lambertus, 28, pleaded guilty under a plea deal on September 24 to the single felony charge, as well as a sentencing enhancement for using a pistol during the incident. In exchange, prosecutors dropped three further attempted first-degree murder counts and three additional sentence enhancement allegations that would have specified Lambertus’ use of a pistol during the offenses.
The investigation began in August 2023, when Loveland police arrived at a Safeway parking lot after receiving a complaint of a shooting. They discovered that two victims were asleep on the ground and a third was nearby when someone in an SUV passed by, shot them and fled. One person was harmed in the incident.
The Loveland Police Department conducted an investigation and discovered the SUV was registered to Lambertus. The investigation led officers to Bozeman, Montana, where they interviewed Lambertus and a co-defendant, Ayla Osterloth. Both were detained and extradited to Larimer County for the case, according to prosecutors, who discovered Osterloth was driving the SUV during the shooting and Lambertus was the shooter.
In June, Osterloth pled guilty to second-degree attempted murder. She was sentenced to four years in the minor offender system and an eight-year suspended sentence at the Department of Corrections.
Prosecutors requested that the judge sentence Lambertus to a maximum of 48 years in jail. According to prosecutors, Lambertus told police that he wanted to shoot someone “who no one would care about” and who he thought “wasn’t a contributing member of society.” During the sentencing hearing, prosecutors also revealed that Lambertus attempted to manipulate Osterloth by speaking with her in jail and pushing her to accept responsibility for the crime.
Lambertus was also sentenced to five years of parole after completing his prison sentence.
