Donald Gonzales convicted of murdering Denver man he met for sex
After deliberating for six hours, a Denver jury recently returned a guilty verdict and convicted 23-year-old Donald Gonzales of 2nd Degree Murder in the 2021 death of Gary McLaughlin.
McLaughlin, found lying in the 1100 block of Sherman Street after residents there heard three gunshots, died later at a hospital.
According to a case document obtained by CBS News Colorado, Gonzales and McLaughlin had met once in the week prior to their deadly encounter.
What precisely transpired between the two men once they met the night of the murder is undetermined in the document, and may still be a mystery to prosecutors as evidenced by the 2nd Degree Murder charge rather than 1st Degree Murder. But by reaching the guilty verdict, jurors did agree with prosecutors that Gonzales was planning to meet McLaughlin, was in the area, and was armed with the weapon which killed him.
According to the document, the two men first connected through the Grindr app. Grindr declares itself the "world's largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people" on its website.
Gonzales, using the handles "Donald Youngster" and "Young Top," conversed with the 35-year-old McLaughlin on May 20, 2021. Sometime in the following days, according to a Denver Police Department detective, the two men got together.
"This is not the first time that these two men had met?" a prosecutor asked the DPD detective about the night of the murder.
"Correct," the detective replied.
"They had previously met and exchanged money for sex?"
"That's correct."
After their first meeting, Gonzales and McLaughlin communicated via text on cell phones. Shortly after midnight on the 28th, the men texted one another and decided to meet in front of the apartment building, according to the DPD detective's testimony.
Neighbors reported the shooting to 9-1-1 dispatchers just before 3 a.m.
At least one of those neighbors witnessed a car speeding away from the scene. The car, a white Mercedes S3500, drove down an alley and then turned into a parking garage. On the top floor of the garage, the car crashed into a concrete wall. Its driver ran off, crossing a construction site next to the parking garage and triggering motion-sensitive alarms and cameras.
Other neighbors ran into the street and tried to treat McLaughlin's wounds, according to the detective. One of these neighbors picked up McLaughlin's cell phone that was ringing. He told the caller the owner of the phone had been shot.
Two men ran up to the scene, one of them apparently on the other end of cell phone call. That man grabbed McLaughlin's cell phone from the neighbor and both ran off.
Investigators later learned the two men were attending a party at one of the apartments at 1160 Sherman Street. McLaughlin was in attendance, too, prior to the shooting. The partygoers were using drugs and having sex, according to the detective's testimony. McLaughlin told another person was meeting a Grindr hookup and stepped outside.
Detectives found Gonzales's DNA and fingerprints inside the car, in the driver's side area and the airbag which was deployed during the crash. They also matched shell casings found at the scene to a custom-assembled "ghost gun" and 15-round magazine found hidden at the construction site.
Plus, they found a hardware store receipt inside the car from a purchase earlier the same day as the murder. That store's surveillance video of the purchase showed a customer wearing the same clothing as the person who ran through the construction site.
Gonzales's cell phone records indicated he was in the area at the time of the shooting. The white Mercedes belonged to Gonzales's grandmother.
In an interview with police after his arrest, Gonzales told investigators he was "exploring his sexuality" at the time of the incident. He accused McLaughlin of attacking him.
McLaughlin was on parole for a burglary conviction at the time of his death.
Gonzales is scheduled for sentencing on May 18.