A Colorado Springs man will face 20 to 32 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Matthew Helberg, 39, on Tuesday in an El Paso County courtroom.

Howard Heyliger, 31, recounted to Judge Michael McHenry shooting Helberg on June 26 near East Platte Avenue and North Cedar Street after he got into a physical altercation with his friend over an apparent road-rage incident.

The plea agreement signed by Heyliger asserts he knowingly killed Helberg in a “sudden heat of passion,” the judge read aloud.

On that day, Helberg was driving with his fiancée to pick up their two children after a night out at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and a bar in downtown Colorado Springs when a man in a red vehicle asked them to pull over.

The driver of that vehicle, Heyliger’s friend, told police he and Helberg stepped out of their vehicles and were speaking calmly, according to the arrest affidavit. Helberg then allegedly began punching him after Heyliger arrived and asked, “You got a gun?”

The friend claimed to police he was unaware why Helberg began attacking him, but never feared for his life. He described his punches as a “2” on a pain scale of 1 to 10, according to the arrest affidavit.

Heyliger told police he felt he had to use lethal force because Helberg threatened to kill his friend, who allegedly had previously suffered a traumatic brain injury. The friend later denied to police that any deadly threat was made.

On Tuesday, the prosecutor claimed no weapon was involved in the altercation immediately before the shooting and alleged Heyliger responded to witnessing it by shooting Helberg seven times.

Heyliger recounted those events on Tuesday in court, at the judge’s request, by reading from a piece of paper while appearing in handcuffs in an orange jumpsuit.

About 20 people sat in the gallery to witness Heyliger’s guilty plea.

Helberg had five children and three stepchildren, according to his obituary.

Heyliger will be sentenced to state prison on June 12. He will serve five years of parole at the end of any sentence decided by the judge, McHenry told the defendant.

The sentence in this case will run concurrently with any possible sentence from Heyliger’s pending Lincoln County case involving charges of internet sexual exploitation of a child.

In November, Heyliger allegedly inappropriately messaged someone he believed to be a child who was actually a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy using recreated child-like AI photos of themself, according to the arrest affidavit obtained by The Gazette.

He will appear in a Lincoln County courtroom for an arraignment in that case on April 24.