Two men convicted of shooting into a house full of teens and killing a 17-year-old girl were sentenced today to more than 48 years in prison.
Angelo Montoya, 19, and Dominic Duran, 21, were convicted of attempted first-degree murder with extreme indifference, reckless manslaughter, and being accessories to murder in Mackenzie Kingry’s death.
Montoya and Duran were among a small group asked to leave a party on Oct. 24, 2004, when the host, Matt Barton, decided the situation was getting out of hand, according to previous court testimony.
Testimony showed Montoya slapped one of Barton’s friends, pulled a 9mm Glock handgun out of his pants and waved it.
As Montoya left, he fired five shots at the house, including one that grazed the face of Eddie Chavez, who had given the gun to Montoya. Montoya ran to a car and dropped the gun on the console.
Duran picked it up and began shooting at the house over the roof of the car.
Kingry, a Wheat Ridge High School senior, was with three girls in a bedroom. A bullet hit her in the head. She died four days before her 18th birthday.
In sentencing Montoya and Duran, District Court Judge Margie Enquist said she understands their families have suffered as well as the victims. Still, the strong sentence is a message to teens that gun violence will punished severely.
“It needs to stop,” Enquist said. “It just needs to stop.”
