A jury convicted Ricky Colon after prosecutors detailed injuries, evidence and post-killing conduct.
OSWEGO, N.Y. — The murder case over Rachel Allen’s death ended in Oswego County court with Ricky Colon sentenced to 25 years to life for killing her inside his home.
Allen, 38, was found dead July 13, 2024, after emergency crews responded to a West Schuyler Street residence for a report that an unconscious woman needed medical help. The prosecution that followed lasted nearly two years from the first call to the final sentencing hearing. It produced a February 2026 jury verdict, a maximum murder sentence and a courtroom record focused on a broken cast-iron stove grate, extensive blunt force injuries and Colon’s behavior after the killing.
The first official account began with the emergency response at 30 W. Schuyler St. in Oswego. Firefighters arrived first and reported Allen dead. Police then opened an investigation with help from state and county agencies. Within the early stage of the case, investigators identified Colon, then 35, as the suspect and charged him with murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and tampering with physical evidence. Those charges grew out of what authorities said happened inside Colon’s own residence, not in a public space or a distant location, making the home itself the center of the evidence.
Prosecutors later told jurors that Colon used a cast-iron stove grate to beat Allen so severely that the grate broke into several pieces. The medical examiner found Allen died from blunt force trauma and documented 58 external injuries and 13 internal injuries. First responders who knew Allen said the damage to her body was so severe they could not recognize her. The jury also heard that Colon moved Allen’s body, burned her clothes and falsely told 911 dispatchers she had died from a drug overdose. Prosecutors argued that the condition of the scene and the medical findings disproved the overdose claim and pointed instead to an intentional killing.
The Oswego County District Attorney’s Office announced on Feb. 13, 2026, that a jury had found Colon guilty by unanimous verdict. District Attorney Anthony J. DiMartino Jr. credited the Oswego City Police Department, New York State Police and the Oswego County Sheriff’s Office, along with Assistant District Attorneys Louis Mannara and Matthew Bell. DiMartino said the verdict would bring justice for Allen and some sense of closure for her family. The guilty verdict left sentencing as the next step, with Colon facing punishment for murder, assault, weapon possession and evidence tampering.
Sentencing took place before Oswego County Supreme Court Justice Armen Nazarian, who gave Colon 25 years to life on the murder conviction. The judge also imposed a 25-year sentence on the assault conviction and shorter terms on the weapon and tampering counts. All of the sentences were ordered to run concurrently. The legal effect was that Colon’s life sentence on the murder count became the controlling term. Though the sentences run at the same time, Nazarian said the maximum punishment was required because of the violence of the killing and Colon’s refusal to accept responsibility for it.
Nazarian described the murder as one of the most “brutal and disturbing” crimes he had seen. He cited an insurance report that said cleaning the residence required more than $20,000 in services. “The sheer violence required to inflict those injuries demonstrates an astonishing level of cruelty,” the judge said. He also criticized Colon’s conduct after Allen’s death, saying Colon washed blood off himself while Allen’s body was in the shower area. The court viewed that conduct as evidence of callousness rather than panic. Nazarian said Colon had shown “a complete and absolute lack of remorse.”
The sentencing hearing also exposed a sharp dispute over Colon’s background. Defense attorney Michael Spano asked the court to consider Colon’s military service during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and his post-traumatic stress disorder. Spano said Colon returned from service changed from the person his family once knew. “Judge, he entered the service one person and came back a different person,” he said. During trial, however, the court had not allowed the defense to present Colon’s PTSD diagnosis to the jury. The sentencing argument therefore arrived after jurors had already found him guilty on the evidence of Allen’s death.
Prosecutors opposed any reduction based on Colon’s military history, mental health or alcohol use. Mannara said Colon had received a fair trial, access to counsel and considerable leeway during courtroom outbursts. He told the court Colon had shown no mercy to Allen and deserved the maximum sentence. Nazarian agreed, saying Colon used PTSD and alcohol to avoid responsibility and had not taken meaningful steps to address his substance use or mental health problems. The judge also rejected Colon’s presentence claim that he had given Allen alcohol to prevent withdrawal symptoms, noting that Colon killed her later that day.
The case was marked by recordings Colon made after Allen was dead. Prosecutors said the videos showed Colon covered in blood, crying and speaking incoherently inside the house. In one video, he claimed he had found Allen dead, proclaimed his innocence and spoke about calling police. In another statement captured in the reported recordings, he said he believed his life was over. Prosecutors called the videos “extremely bizarre.” Nazarian focused on them because they reflected Colon’s attempt to present himself as someone who discovered a death rather than the person responsible for it.
Colon’s own words interrupted the sentencing before it ended. As Nazarian discussed the videos and the evidence, Colon broke in with an obscenity-filled outburst and said he had not received a fair trial because he was not allowed to testify on his own behalf. Deputies removed him from the courtroom and took him to a holding cell. The judge continued over a defense objection. He then said Colon’s lack of remorse and “proven capacity for extreme, explosive violence” made him a continuing danger to the community. The court concluded that the maximum sentence was not only appropriate, but necessary.
For Allen’s case, the trial-court record now runs from a welfare complaint to a murder conviction and a life sentence. The record leaves some details unknown, including a clearly stated motive and every movement inside the home before police were called. What has been resolved is the legal finding that Colon intentionally murdered Allen and will serve at least 25 years in prison.
Author note: Last updated May 7, 2026.