A man who fatally shot a woman and injured a man at a bus terminal underneath Union Station in 2025 will spend the rest of his life in prison.
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A jury found 20-year-old Jakiem Whitham guilty in July on multiple charges, including first-degree murder, attempted murder and assault in the shooting death of 19-year-old Ileanna Hernandez. Two violent crime sentence enhancers were also proven.
Whitham was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“Hernandez would be alive today were it not for Jakiem Whitham’s brutal, senseless actions that terrible night at Union Station’s bus terminal,” Denver District Attorney John Walsh said in a video posted to social media. “Nothing can bring (Hernandez) back, but my hope is that her family and friends are comforted by the fact that justice has been served and that Whitham will never be a free man again.”
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Investigators said Whitham was fighting with a 19-year-old man over a gun when it fired and hit Hernandez, who was riding an escalator descending into the Regional Transportation District’s Chestnut Pavilion bus terminal underneath Union Station. She died from her injuries several days later.
During the fight, Whitham pistol-whipped the other man, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office.
Whitham had been out of jail for a month on a $50,000 cash or surety bail in a separate Arapahoe County assault case when the shooting happened. He pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in that case in August.
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