A Broomfield District Court judge today sentenced a man to 15 years in prison for stabbing another man to death during a night of drinking.
A tearful Matt Weber, 31, told Judge Thomas Ensor that not a day goes by when he doesn’t regret taking the life of Matias Mondragon and the pain he caused Mondragon’s family.
Weber stabbed Mondragon after a confrontation in the Night Owl Lounge in Broomfield spilled out into the parking lot and Mondragon hit Weber’s friend with a bottle in 2010.
Weber pled guilty to second-degree homicide, and his plea deal called for a sentencing range of 13 to 32 years. “I stand before you very remorseful and very sorry that this took place,” he told Ensor.
Weber, of Arvada, was drinking with friends and got into a verbal altercation with Mondragon inside the bar. He told police that Mondragon picked a fight with him and a friend, calling them “fags.”
Shaundra Fuqua who accompanied Mondragon to the bar, said it was Weber and his friend, Mathew Bufe, who started the fight when they realized that Mondragon was gay.
The argument continued in the parking lot and Mondragon hit Bufe with a bottle and then ran.
Weber chased him and stabbed him in the left side of his chest. Mondragon was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Ensor said he believes that Weber regrets taking Mondragon’s life.
In rejecting the request of Weber’s public defender, Nicole Collins, that Ensor give her client the lowest possible penalty, 13 years, Ensor said he didn’t believe that Weber had any intention of killing or hurting anyone when he went to the bar that night.
“I can’t ignore the fact that you went to a bar with a knife. I can’t understand why anybody would go into a bar and start drinking with a knife.”
And he said that Weber lied to police after the incident, telling them that Mondragon had pulled a gun on him and Bufe.
Ensor added that he believed Weber will be conscious stricken over the killing for the rest of his life. However, Ensor said, he didn’t think the minimum sentence was appropriate before giving him 15 years and telling him that in all likelihood he will be out in 11 years.
Mondragon, 31, of Ranchos De Taos, N.M., came to Denver expecting his lover, Billy Newson, to leave prison and meet him. A parole board turned down the man’s request for parole, but Mondragon stayed on for the next two weeks and was killed on Aug. 22, 2010.
On March 18 of this year, Newson, 29, was shot to death at the corner of Pearl and Colfax. Anthony Escobedo, 31, is charged in the incident.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
