Charges filed in Aurora man's slaying

Benjamin Lucero

AURORA | Prosecutors have charged a 22-year-old man with murder in connection with the Feb. 8 slaying of an Aurora man outside a west Denver strip club, Denver prosecutors announced late last week. 

Benjamin Ray Lucero faces one court of first-degree murder, according to a statement from prosecutors. 

Lucero is accused of killing George Valenzuela-Lopez, 34, around 11:15 p.m. Feb. 8 in the parking lot of Dandy Dan’s Gentleman’s Club, 214 S. Federal Blvd. 

Denver police said Valenzuela-Lopez was in a fight with another man in the bar’s parking lot seconds before he was shot. 

Police named Lucero a suspect in the killing a few days after Valenzuela-Lopez’s death and arrested him in Thornton on Feb. 17. 

Lucero is being held in the Denver Detention Center without bond and is set to appear in court March 1 to be formally advised of the charge against him, prosecutors said.