Sentencing set for
December
By RUTH HEIDE
DEL NORTE — The same day Danice Day’s family decided to bring closure to her death with an obituary, the man responsible for her death pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Victor Anthony Braun, 33, Day’s boyfriend and father to one of her two children, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in front of District Judge Martin Gonzales on Tuesday, the day his victim’s family submitted an obituary “attempting to establish closure since the discovery of her body in June of 2009.”
The family had not experienced that closure since Danice disappeared on January 9 of 2002.
With information provided by Braun, who was being held on numerous other charges in the Rio Grande County jail, authorities recovered Danice Day’s body in a barrel retrieved from Lyman Lake State Park, Arizona, this summer. The remains were positively confirmed as Danice Day’s this fall.
At that time Rio Grande County Sheriff Brian Norton said authorities were initially led to Day’s remains earlier this year “through negotiations through the suspect Victor Braun, through his attorney and the DA’s office.”
Also during the September press conference, District Attorney David Mahonee said, “It wasn’t really a plea bargain. It was negotiation on a contract.”
In exchange for his role in helping locate Day’s body, Braun negotiated an agreement that involved a manslaughter plea and dismissal of other cases.
Under the presumptive, or normal, sentencing range Braun would be facing 2-6 years in prison on the felony manslaughter charge, Deputy District Attorney Geoffrey Rieman explained on Wednesday.
However, since Braun was on probation at the time of the offense, a more severe sentence of up to 12 years can be imposed. The aggravated sentencing range is 4-12 years in this case. Rieman said on Wednesday he did not know what sentence he would be asking the court to impose. He said he wants to review the pre-sentence investigation report first.
Judge Gonzales scheduled Braun’s sentencing for December 10.
Rieman said Braun pleaded guilty on Tuesday to manslaughter and two misdemeanor theft charges, with some drug and burglary cases dismissed. Rieman added that the restitution from the dismissed cases will still be required. He said he hoped the victims would be compensated for their losses in those burglary cases.
Rieman added that a special prosecutor from the Durango district attorney’s office handled those other cases.
Danice Day was 19 years old at the time she disappeared from the Monte Vista area in 2002 and would have been 27 years old on May 8. She had last been seen leaving her job at a restaurant where she was a waitress. She was the mother of two children, a son and a daughter, who are being raised by paternal grandparents.
Danice’s family has planned a memorial service for this Friday, Nov. 6, at 1 p.m. at the United Methodist Church in Monte Vista, with another service scheduled in Wyoming on November 13.
“Danice will be remembered by family and friends for her bright, beautiful, and positive spirit,” her family stated.
Over the years since Danice’s disappearance her family held out some hope that she might be found alive. Her sister Jacqui, who lived in the San Luis Valley at one time, responded at the time her sister’s remains were found this summer, “we still half hoped...”
Jacqui also said at that time the family members were trying to process their grief. “I thought we would be relieved, and it’s like she is dead all over again because we did not ever know she was fully gone ... We just have mixed emotions.”
Jacqui maintained a web site for her sister and posted news articles and personal thoughts over the years. Danice’s father Rod Day of Monte Vista also posted many items over the seven-year period.
One thousand days after her disappearance, Rod posted on October 4, 2004: “Danice enjoyed life! She enjoyed special occasions that most of us take for granted. Consider this, since January 9, 2002, Danice has missed: 3 of her birthdays _3 of her baby’s birthdays _3 of each of her parents birthdays _3 Mother’s Days _3 Father’s Days _3 Easters 2 Thanksgivings _2 Christmas _and 2 New Year’s.”
Since that time Danice missed several more birthdays, mother’s days and Christmases.
In October of 2002, the year Danice disappeared, her father shared on the web site a poem he had found that Danice had written several years before. It had been published in
“A Celebration of Poets 1998” under Danice’s penname K.D. Prater. The poem was entitled “March On.”
“One day I thought I saw _
I saw you standing there, _
But then you turned away, _
You were without a care. _
I called to you, _
I called your name, _
But silence is what I got, _
I know what you think you’re doing- _
Hurting me. _
But you’re not. _
I’m strong now, you know, _
Strong unlike before, _
And I don’t need your fickle ways, _
Your apologies anymore. _
I’m actually living life for once, _
Without you, _
I’m happy to say, _
So go ahead and waste your time, _
But me, _
I’ve marched away.”
