The former Clear Creek County Sheriff’s deputy convicted in the killing of 22-year-old Christian Glass in 2022 was sentenced to three years in prison Monday. 

Judge Catherine Cheroutes gave Andrew Buen, who was convicted of criminally negligent homicide by a jury in February, the maximum sentence.

He will serve three years for the crime, with two years of mandatory parole. He will also concurrently serve 120 days for reckless endangerment and get credit for the 54 days he has served.

“In my mind, this is about the homicide, that’s what this has been about is Mr. Buen killing Christian Glass,” Cheroutes said Monday. “That deserves punishment.”

Sally Glass, Glass’s mother, sobbed and clutched a bouquet of fake flowers, her hands shaking, during the hearing, which began with a video compilation of photos of Christian Glass as a kid — learning to ride a bike, playing board games with his family, grinning in ski goggles. 

Next to Sally Glass’s bathroom mirror is a photo of her son as a child, she said Monday. By the photo is a post-it note from her friend: “Life is for the living.” Christian would have wanted his family to keep living their lives, she said, but she will never be the same.

“I’m not happy and I’ll never be happy ever again,” she said. “There’s a hole in my heart that will never be healed.”

Buen spoke in front of the court for the first time Monday, apologizing to Glass’ family, saying through tears that he is “so sorry for (their) loss.”

“Every time I talk to my family about a past memory, I remember that (the Glass family) has similar memories, but the person they’re about is gone,” Buen said, struggling to read his own words through his tears during his Monday testimony. “There’s nothing I can do to change the past, but there are a million things I could have done differently that night.”

Glass said Monday the family was prepared for any sentencing outcome.

“You never know what the outcome will be, so you have to make peace with it,” she said. “But we said it doesn’t really matter because whatever happens, Christian isn’t coming back.”

The sentencing came after a trial and retrial in the Fifth Judicial District, the first of which ended in a deadlock in April 2024 on the charges of second-degree murder and official misconduct.

Testimony during the trial showed Glass was having a mental health episode after getting his car stuck between two rocks in the mountains.

Glass had turned off of I-70 eastbound to avoid cars on the highway. Glass called 911 for assistance and told the dispatcher that he thought people were following him, including “skin-walkers,” who might be after him.

During the call, Glass told the dispatcher that he had multiple weapons, including knives and a mallet, but he didn’t plan to use them. He told the dispatcher he would throw them out of the window as soon as officers arrived.

Buen was one of the two officers to arrive at the scene first. Seven officers from different departments responded.

Buen is the only one of eight officers, including one over radio, to face trial. Six others from five different jurisdictions were charged with failure to stop the situation; two of the cases were dropped at the end of 2024.

Officers attempted to get Glass out of the car and to roll his windows down for more than an hour. Prosecutors argued that the effort to get him to leave the vehicle started within 17 seconds of arrival.

After negotiations and Glass’ degrading mental health, Buen broke a side window, fired six bean bag rounds and tased Glass. Glass then began stabbing himself with a knife.

The defense said he also thrust a knife at an officer, former Georgetown Marshall Randy Williams, out of the back window.

Buen shot Glass five times.

“It was about power, it wasn’t a mistake,” Cheroutes said Monday. “Restorative justice is an opportunity for healing, but it’s not Mr. Buen’s healing that needs to happen.”

Glass’ parents and sister, Katie, described Christian as “positive” and “gentle.” He was a talented artist, they said, and had a good sense of humor. 

“He was somebody I always looked up to,” Katie Glass, his sister, said. “He was incredibly kind, gentle, everything I wanted to be.”

Now, she has constant anxiety, she added.

“When I see a cop, I hold my breath until they’re gone,” Glass said. “Ever since then, I wish we could’ve traded places … he died terrified, all alone.”

Simon Glass, his father, said talking about his son in the past tense feels “alien, like someone else is speaking.”

“The joy in life is gone,” he said. “We have so many memories so infused with pain.”

Several of Buen’s family members also spoke Monday, asking the judge to consider “all of the circumstances” in the case. His mother called Buen a “kind and loving man” who has “always been a wonderful son.”

“I kind of lost my son that night, too,” she said through tears, explaining that Buen hasn’t been the same since the shooting. 

Buen’s sister spoke of a man who would “give anyone the shirt off his back,” and asked the judge to “consider the future impact this sentence will have as we try to rebuild our family.”

After the hearing, Sally Glass said, it’s “very very hard” to listen to Buen’s family members talk about “losing” Buen after the shooting.

“He is just going to spend a couple years in jail, but maybe he’ll go on and have a decent life after that. Let’s hope so,” she said. “He deprived our son of a life.”

Glass said that while she will never get her son back, she’s relieved that his name is cleared. 

“We knew our son,” she said. “We knew he wasn’t a knife-wielding maniac. He was a gentle boy.”