Donald Gonzales receives 38-year sentence in wake of deadly Grindr hookup

An early morning meeting between two men in the Capitol Hill section of Denver ended with one's shooting death and the other held responsible and imprisoned for it. 

Donald Gonzales, 23, was sentenced Thursday to 38 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. The judge removed 715 days from the Gonzales's sentence as a "credit" for time already served. Gonzales has been in Denver's jail since the summer of 2021 for the murder of 35-year-old Gary McLaughlin.

McLaughlin was found lying in the 1100 block of Sherman Street after residents there heard three gunshots. He died after being taken to a local 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 as opposed to 1st Degree Murder. But by reaching the guilty verdict, jurors did apparently agreed with prosecutors that Gonzales was planning to meet McLaughlin, was in the area, and was armed with the weapon which killed McLaughlin.

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, eight days before the murder, according to the document. Sometime after their initial conversation, the two men got together, a Denver Police Department detective stated during a court proceeding.

"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, according to the document. Shortly after midnight on the 28th, the men texted one another and decided to meet in front of the apartment building.

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.

A Denver jury returned a guilty verdict and convicted Gonzales of 2nd Degree Murder in March.

McLaughlin was on parole for a burglary conviction at the time of his death.