Family remembers teen as trial for Colorado man accused of killing him begins

Jeff Blitstein says his nephew Peyton Blitstein was a driven and motivated young man.

"He loved, you know, doing the young Marines. So, he wanted to go into military," said Jeff.

Their family is very close-knit and Jeff, who doesn't have kids of his own, loved watching his nephew grow.

"Watching him have goals and dreams and try to grow up and, you know, be like the young man, it was it was like, very cool,"  said Jeff.

All of that was taken away just before Thanksgiving of 2021. Peyton and his friends were driving in a neighborhood in southeast Aurora when a doorbell video showed former Greenwood Village police officer Adam Holen confronting the teens about speeding through the neighborhood.

The argument escalated and the video shows both Holen and Peyton Blitstein pulled out guns and fired. Peyton was hit and Holen tried to perform life-saving measures, but the teen died just after his 17th birthday.

"And you know, that cliché saying like, 'oh, it will never happen to us,' but is a cliché until it does," said Jeff.

He says since then his family has struggled to return to normalcy. Especially since the trial for Adam Holen has been postponed five times.

"We try to go day by day and try to live our best life. And then there's just something hanging, you know, in the back of our head. And then you get slapped back in reality, like, gosh, we still have to do this case again," said Jeff.

Jury selection is set to begin this week, followed by the trial for Adam Holen. Jeff says he hopes his family can get justice for his nephew.

"It's going to be extremely hard with the family to absolutely relive this. But we know we have to do it. We hope we really hope justice is served and he's behind bars for a very long time," said Jeff.