'Aryan Warriors' Prison Gang Leader And Murder Suspect Daniel Egan Sought By Police After Skipping Court
SALIDA, Colo. (CBS4) -- Police in a small Colorado mountain town are looking for 47-year-old Daniel Egan, a ranking member of a Nevada prison gang and one of the suspects in a murder of a Colorado inmate.
And they're asking for the public's help in finding him.
The Salida Police Department stated in its Facebook post published Friday that Egan "has an extensive criminal history and should be considered armed and dangerous."
According to online court records, additional charges were brought against Egan in 2007 while he was already in federal custody in Nevada. He was cited as one of 14 inmates who operated a violent, race-based prison gang. Egan was second-in-command within the gang and reportedly went by the nickname "Dano."
The reach of the "Aryan Warriors" extended beyond the prison walls and into the communities of Las Vegas, Henderson, Reno and Pahrump, according to the grand jury indictment.
The gang "offers protection to 'white' inmates if they join the criminal enterprise," the indictment stated, and "enforces a culture of white purity or supremacy inside Nevada prisons."
Egan pleaded guilty to racketeering and was sentenced to 200 months in prison in that case.
Then, in 2018, Egan was named as one of four suspects in the murder of another inmate in the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) facility in Buena Vista.
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Matthew Massaro was killed. The suspects in his death were moved to another facility, the DOC stated.
Charges were brought against Egan and his three alleged accomplices, Brett Boyes, Gary Labor and Chad Merrill, in the Chaffee County courts, based in Salida. Egan's charges in the case are identical to those listed in Salida PD's Facebook post.
He pleaded guilty to 2nd Degree Assault-Strangulation in September 2021, according to online court records.
Those court records also show the amount of Egan's bond was lowered by Chaffee County Judge Patrick Murphy in March of this year. Egan, with the help of a bondsman from Fairplay, posted a $50,000 surety bond March 18.
Egan did not show up for a court hearing Wednesday.
Of the other three Colorado murder suspects, two have cases that are ongoing. Merrill has a hearing later this month and Boyles is set for trial in October.
Labor pleaded guilty to a single felony and was sentenced in February 2021 to two years in state prison.
