Woman convicted of murdering man, setting his house on fire in 2021
Published on March 14, 2025
GREELEY, Colo. (Weld County D.A.) – A Weld County woman will spend the rest of her natural life behind bars for killing a man at his Greeley home before setting his house on fire in 2021.
On Wednesday, after a two-week long trial, a Weld County jury convicted 23-year-old Stacy Rodriguez of: first-degree murder, first-degree arson, tampering with a deceased human body, and two counts of second-degree burglary.
Rodriguez and her co-defendant, Hosanna Varela, met Christopher Dickerson at a Greeley bar on the evening of October 2, 2021.
The two women went back to Dickerson’s home for what was intended to be a casual gathering. However, that’s where Rodriguez stabbed Dickerson to death before setting his house on fire.
“Chris did not deserve to die that day that he befriended those two young women,” Allen Dickerson, the victim’s father, said during the sentencing hearing Wednesday afternoon. “ Chris deserved so much more in his life.”
Weld County Judge Vincente Vigil sentenced Stacy Rodriguez to life in the Colorado Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder conviction.
In addition, she received a 32-year sentence for first-degree arson and 12 years for tampering with a deceased human body. Both the arson and tampering sentences will run consecutive to the life sentence.
Rodriguez was also sentenced to 12 years for each burglary charge. The burglary sentences will run concurrent to one another, but will run consecutive to the other three sentences.
“This entire process has been a joke to this defendant,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Pirraglia said. “She jokes. She laughs. The jury got to see her true character which is nothing but diabolical and despicable. She is a threat to society and there’s no place for her in it.”
During the sentencing hearing, Chief Deputy Pirraglia went on to thank Detective Jerry Burroughs and the rest of the Greeley Police Department for their hard work and dedication to solving this heinous case, as well as thanked the victim’s family for their grace during the court proceedings the past three years.
“ I hope this verdict brings some peace. I hope after today you get some closure in this journey,” CDDA Pirraglia told the victim’s family. “This family gave us the strength to keep going the past three years, and today we got justice for Christopher.”
Varela, Rodriguez’s co-defendant, pled guilty to first-degree arson, tampering with a deceased human body, and accessory to a crime. She was sentenced to 32-years in DOC in January of 2024.
In addition to CDDA Michael Pirraglia, Deputy District Attorney Timothy McCormack also prosecuted this case.