Golden – Attorneys for two men accused of firing the same gun that killed a Wheat Ridge High School senior told jurors during closing arguments Monday that their clients were involved but denied the two acted with malice.
Prosectors contend that when Angelo Montoya, 19, and Dominic Duran, 21, fired the 9mm Glock handgun at a house full of people early Oct. 24, 2004, they put many lives at risk.
Mackenzie Kingry, who would have celebrated her 18th birthday four days later, was in a bedroom when a Glock bullet came through a window and struck her in the head.
Montoya and Duran were indicted last year on charges of first-degree murder with extreme indifference and attempted first-degree murder.
The jury began deliberations after the week-long trial. District Judge Margie Enquist instructed the jury that it also could consider lesser charges, such as reckless manslaughter.
Kingry’s death was the result of an attitude of “universal malice” and “depravity of the human heart” that “we as a society cannot and will not tolerate,” senior deputy district attorney Dennis Hall said in explaining the legal term “extreme indifference” to the jury.
When the party – which included alcohol and marijuana use – started to get out of hand, friends of host Matt Barton told Montoya and Duran to leave, several witnesses said.
Montoya slapped one man, pulled the Glock out of his pants and waved it in the air. Montoya ran through the crowd and fired five rounds back at the house. He then went to a car parked in the street where he dropped the Glock on the center console.
Duran picked up the gun and fired as Montoya drove away, testimony showed.
Montoya’s defense attorney, Jonathan Bley, said his client “made some very bad choices.”
But Bley said Montoya was provoked and attempted to leave the party, showing he may have been reckless in his actions but wasn’t behaving with extreme indifference.
Bley said prosecutors were trying to put both men “into the boxing ring, and the one that is most bloody and most bruised must be the one” who fired the bullet that killed King ry.
Duran’s attorney, Shay Whitaker, said, “No one can say with absolute certainty who fired the fatal shot.”
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
