Golden – The mother of a teenager who was shot to death at a house party brought her daughter’s ashes into a courtroom Friday for the killers’ sentencing.
“She is still pure,” Vicki Kingry said about her daughter, Mackenzie. “They look like the sands on a beautiful beach you can lay on.”
Kingry calmly recalled looking at her daughter’s hair as it draped over the side of her bed as she slept. Kingry told the court about daily phone calls Mackenzie made to her, just to talk. She recalled hugs.
“She would just grab me and just hold me and look right into my eyes and say, ‘I love you Mom.’ ”
On Friday, Angelo Montoya, 20, and Dominic Duran, 21, each was sentenced to more than 50 years for the shooting death of Mackenzie.
The pair fired shots from a 9mm Glock handgun into a house full of teenagers on Oct. 24, 2004, after they were told to leave a party.
Mackenzie, a Wheat Ridge High School senior, was hit in the head. She was cremated on her 18th birthday.
Mackenzie’s father, Ed Kingry, also addressed the court.
“I carry her in my heart and all the things that I do,” he said.
The father said it’s been difficult accepting the finality of his daughter’s death.
“We often speak of her as if she is on an errand and she will be back soon,” he said.
Montoya and Duran spoke at the hearing, and both expressed condolences to the Kingry family and apologized. They said they are sorry they’ve brought so much pain to so many, including their own families.
Montoya was sentenced to 54 years in prison and Duran to 51. Both had been convicted of attempted first-degree murder with extreme indifference and reckless manslaughter.
Duran’s fiancée was pregnant with their first child when he was arrested, and his daughter was born since he’s been in jail.
Montoya was raised by his grandparents because his parents lead troubled lives and were incapable of rearing him. He likely will not see his grandparents again as a free man.
Emotion so gripped the courtroom where the two young men were sentenced that even the judge cried.
“I know I can never imagine to know your loss,” District Court Judge Margie Enquist told Vicki Kingry.
Enquist urged Kingry family members and friends to “go out into the world and touch others as she has touched you.”
The judge said she realizes the families of Montoya and Duran have suffered great pain as well.
Still, Enquist was compelled to hand down a strong sentence in hopes of deterring others from carrying and using handguns.
“It needs to stop,” Enquist said. “It just needs to stop.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
