A Colorado Springs realtor who pleaded guilty in December to taking three young men hostage at gunpoint three-and-a-half years ago will be sentenced to as long as two decades in prison next month.

Brolin McConnell, 33, was supposed to be sentenced Monday, but the commercial airline flight his Denver-based lawyer was on couldn’t land at the Aspen airport and the sentencing was postponed until March 2.

McConnell pleaded guilty in December to criminal attempt to commit first-degree kidnapping and felony menacing and could have faced as many as 32 years in prison. However, the District Attorney’s Office agreed to limit his sentencing to between eight and 20 years in prison as part of a plea deal.

McConnell has been in custody at the Pitkin County Jail since the hostage incident took place in July 2016 on Lincoln Creek Road on Independence Pass. He used two handguns to hold the men hostage, repeatedly threatened to kill them and fired a round from one of the guns at one of the men’s feet and another next to his head.

All three were able to run away from McConnell without physical injuries, though the three men were traumatized by McConnell’s unhinged threats, according to a lawyer who represents the men in a civil lawsuit.