Man gets 64 years in meth-fueled shooting in Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- A man responsible for killing another person while he was high on methamphetamine last year has been sentenced to 64 years in prison.
According to the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office, Daniel Brandon Gray was sentenced by a judge Monday after he was found guilty of second-degree murder in February. Gray was convicted of killing 35-year-old Daniel Hunt last July.
Gray admitted to killing Hunt on July 31 while high on methamphetamine, court documents revealed. He thought he heard a physical disturbance upstairs where Hunt was with a woman and then shot Hunt, but he later retracted his claim and said he didn't see any physical violence.
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Daniel Gray, 40, will be charged with second-degree murder after admitting to shooting and killing Daniel Hunt, 35, while high on methamphetamine, according to the affidavit from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
Gray initially told deputies that he had shot 35-year-old Hunt in self-defense. Gray said that Hunt was upstairs with a woman, Barbara Bennett, when Gray heard a disturbance between the two.
Gray went upstairs to investigate and learned that the two were arguing about a text that a woman named Brandy had sent Hunt. Gray warned Hunt not to get physical with Bennett. He went back downstairs but then returned upstairs when he again heard a disturbance and thought the fight might have gotten physical. Gray described Hunt as speaking in a “monster tone”. Gray said that he saw Bennet behind the door “hunched up” and that Hunt was “pounding her with his right fist”.
Gray says that he pushed Hunt away from Bennett and Hunt reacted by lowering himself into a wrestling stance and lunging at Gray. Gray then says he fired in self-defense with a .40 caliber handgun he had in his pocket. He says he regularly carries the gun there. Gray estimates that he fired about five rounds.
However, Gray retracted his claim of self-defense later in the interview and conceded that he did not see any physical violence between Hunt and Bennett.
Detective Nick Brklich interviewed Bennett. Bennett said that when she and Hunt began dating he moved in with her. She said that they had been arguing over a text message Hunt had received. Hunt grabbed her face but did not hit her, although he had been physical with her in the past, when Gray knocked on the door to investigate the argument.
Bennett told Gray that everything was alright. She could not recall if Gray actually entered the room, if he later came back to the room, or if he was standing in the door frame the entire time. Bennett tried to continue the conversation with Hunt about the text message. The two were standing with their arms around one another when Bennett said she heard four shots in succession. She told the detective that there was no hesitation between shots.
During the interview with Brklich, Bennett described other incidents where Gray had been physical with Hunt because Gray though Hunt was holding her hostage. On March 6, 2019, Gray kicked in a door and assaulted Hunt with a Barbell.
Another fatal shooting happened at the same address on Sept. 5, 2017. Jack Cole, 41, was killed in the 2017 shooting.
