Kaylee Sanders, 22, was sentenced in the 22nd Judicial District to the maximum 55 years in prison after being found guilty of murdering her brother, Morgan Dane Salgado, 22, and Lewis Wall, 66.
She also was sentenced to 12 concurrent years for assaulting officers.
Sanders, who was 21 at the time of the murders in July 2023, sat in court while Plewe announced the sentence after testimony and pleas from Salgado’s and Walls’ family and friends.
“I appreciate everyone who’s spoken today,” Plewe said. “There’s really nothing that I can say or do as a judge that is going to relieve the pain and suffering of the victims’ families in these cases, and I recognize that. My only hope is that by me giving finality to the criminal cases, that hopefully you can all move forward in your lives as best as you can.”
In June, she pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and to the second-degree assault of law enforcement officers.
Plewe said he decided to accept Sanders’s plea deal because of her traumatic and troubled childhood, but he would sentence her to the maximum term because of the nature of her crimes.
“This is one of the more difficult cases that I’ve had in my career. What you did to these people is just horrific, and I’m going to punish you to the maximum that I can based on the plea agreement, which I believe to be appropriate,” Plewe said.
Sanders of Cortez will receive credit for the 420 days that she has served.
Plewe said that while he believed Sanders’ story about her difficult childhood, he didn’t believe her accounts of the events that led to the deaths of Wall and Saldago.
“I also want you to know that I believe everything that you’ve said about your childhood,” Plewe said. “I’ve been a judge in the community now, for over two decades. Unfortunately, I’ve seen your family come through court. When I read the things that were there, I believed them. As far as how you were raised was horrific, traumatic, violent and an unbelievably difficult life and childhood. I believe you have severe PTSD … it is, however, absolutely no excuse for killing two people.”
Police were called to an apartment on July 28, 2023, at 516 S. Madison St. after receiving a 911 call from a woman who said her granddaughter had shot her grandson in the head.
Dispatchers reported that they heard Sanders yelling in the background, saying she shot her brother in the head and that “he never leaves me alone.” She also reportedly said, “I need your guys’ help to get that narcissistic, abusive (expletive) away from me.”
When police arrived, they instructed the grandmother to come out of the apartment. Sanders came with the gun still in her hand.
When police ordered her to drop the gun, she reportedly pointed it into the air and fired a shot before leaving the scene.
At 2:10 a.m. the Montezuma County Emergency Alert System instructed residents within a mile of the 500 block of South Madison Street to keep their doors and windows locked.
Sanders was arrested at 3:19 a.m. after being shot multiple times with a beanbag gun because she wouldn’t drop her gun. The gun, a black Colt .45 MK4 Series 70 Gold Cup National Match, was seized at the scene.
Later, in an interview with officer Koby Gutteridge, Sanders told him that she didn’t feel safe with her brother. It was also alleged in an earlier hearing that her brother had sexually assaulted her.
“He triggers me and never leaves me alone. Nobody wanted to listen, so I snapped. I finally snapped,” Sanders said.
Sanders was also charged with murdering Wall on July 27, the day before Salgado’s murder.
Later in the morning on July 28, Tianna Gallegos came to the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office to report a shooting she said occurred the day before.
Gallegos said she and Sanders were gathering firewood at Wall’s house to sell, and that they had parted ways briefly after Sanders had been writing in her journal.
Soon, Sanders walked outside with her backpack on and a gun in her hand. Gallegos said Sanders told her to help her find Wall’s truck keys and instructed her “not to panic” when they went inside.
When they entered the house, Gallegos said she saw Wall sitting in a semi-upright position against his couch and that he was “grunting.” After finding Walls’ keys and taking his truck, Sanders held the gun in her lap while Gallegos drove. Gallegos said she felt like she couldn’t get away. Sanders was later charged with kidnapping and car theft along with her other charges.
Sanders had reportedly said that Wall’s “hands were in places they should not have been.”
After Gallegos’ report, Montezuma County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bryan Hill went to Wall’s home at 18661 Colorado Highway 145 for a welfare check and found Wall “alone and dead on the living room floor.”
