The lawyers talked a lot about choices in the week-long trial of two young men charged with murdering 17-year-old MacKenzie Kingry. But they gave short shrift to one of the most critical decisions.
In Jefferson County, prosecutors and defense attorneys haggled over why then-18-year-old Angelo Montoya fired a pistol five times in the front yard of a Wheat Ridge house when he was forced from a booze-soaked teen party in 2004.
Lawyers also discussed why Montoya’s co-defendant, then-19-year-old Dominic Duran, decided to grab the same gun and squeeze off five more rounds as he and Montoya drove away from the party, which they had tried to crash.
One of those bullets hit Kingry in the head and killed her. While no one is quite sure which one, everyone knows where the gun that fired the shot came from. And that leads to a vital, but little-discussed choice in solving a senseless crime that took an innocent life.
The Jefferson County district attorney’s office granted immunity to the guy who gave Montoya the pistol that shot Kingry. That guy, Eddie Chavez, then became a witness for the prosecution.
It was a deal that might come back to haunt them.
One of Montoya’s extremely indifferent shots grazed Chavez’s face. This gave an otherwise depressing tale of teen violence a single moment of poetic justice: Montoya faces an attempted murder charge for shooting Chavez with Chavez’s own pistol.
Any dark satisfaction disappeared Monday. In the trial’s closing arguments, Montoya’s lawyer reminded jurors that Chavez not only provided the murder weapon to Montoya, Chavez also disposed of the Glock 9mm. Chavez sold the murder weapon for $300 to a guy on the street, said public defender Jonathan Bley. The gun, Bley said, was later used in another crime, one involving drugs.
Authorities won’t say what charges Chavez – 17 at the time of Kingry’s death – avoided. Court records show no prior convictions for Chavez.
“Any time you talk about a decision to encourage witnesses to testify, you can be second-guessed,” said District Attorney Scott Storey. Chavez’s deal involved “what we knew we had at the time,” Storey added, refusing to elaborate until the jury makes a decision.
After speaking to Kingry’s mother Monday, I hope there was no other way to make this case. Vicki Kingry was not mad about the Chavez deal, but she understands the consequences of kids’ easy access to guns. “There’s way too many guns,” she said. “My issue is gun control. It has been since before my daughter was murdered.”
Added MacKenzie Kingry’s grandmother, Dorothy Trebilcock: “I don’t think guns were a question when I was a kid.”
They certainly are now. Evidence showed teenagers at the party where MacKenzie Kingry died had at least three handguns and a pellet rifle. Besides immunizing Chavez, prosecutors let Gilbert Salazar plead to a juvenile misdemeanor in exchange for his testimony. Salazar fired several shots outside the party. He got lucky. He didn’t hit anyone.
No matter. Wheeling and dealing with armed teenagers still gambles with lives.
Standing near MacKenzie Kingry’s mom and grandma on Monday, Karen Berryhill commiserated with the dead teen’s family. In 2003, Berryhill’s son, 18-year-old Garry Scott McLaughlin, died in circumstances creepily similar to Kingry’s. A teenager thrown out of a teen party he had crashed randomly opened fire, and a bullet hit McLaughlin in the heart.
No one figured out where McLaughlin’s 19-year-old killer, Patrick Suchaiya, got his pistol. Nobody really seems to care where kids get guns. Even if they do, lack of gun control often keeps them from figuring it out.
That’s why giving breaks to pistol-packing teenagers is such risky business. Montoya and Duran may be headed to prison. But with guys like Chavez and Salazar still walking around, the mayhem seems likely to continue.
Of course, guns don’t kill people.
Teenagers with guns can.
Even when they’re not aiming at you.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
