Man sentenced to community corrections
A Jefferson County man who pleaded guilty to shooting at a man after a fight in Boulder County was sentenced to community corrections Wednesday.
Brandon Alan White, 42, pleaded guilty in June to attempted manslaughter and criminal mischief, both Class 5 felonies punishable by up to three years in prison. But on Wednesday, Boulder District Judge Thomas Mulvahill opted for a three-year community corrections stint, the sentence that was recommended by the probation department in a pre-sentence investigation.
“Ultimately, I agree with the balancing that the PSI writer applied to their recommendation,” Mulvahill said. “I think you’ll be sufficiently contained, sufficiently supervised, and it has a punitive component.” According to an affidavit, White and another man were in a physical fight Dec. 2, 2021, in the 33000 block of Coal Creek Canyon Drive.
After the fight, prosecutors said White drew a gun and fired five rounds into the victim’s bus while the victim was hiding behind it.
White admitted to the shooting, but attorneys differed on the level of intent, as White’s defense attorney Mark Mayberry said the shots were meant just to scare the victim.
“That’s the biggest disagreement we have here, whether there was an attempt to shoot in (the victim’s) direction,” Mayberry said.
The victim told police a bullet went by his head, but police later determined no shots went near him and that it was possibly a piece of shrapnel or a ricochet.
Mayberry asked for probation, noting that White has already undergone mental health treatment and has a stable living situation with a wife and two young children.
White also took the time to speak at the hearing, calling the shooting “the biggest mistake of my life.”
“At no point was there an intent on ever shooting him,” White said. “But I recognize my actions were reckless and crazy.”
White apologized to the victim, and then to his family and the Coal Creek community.
“I’m sorry for bringing violence into my peaceful mountain community,” White said.
But Boulder Deputy District Attorney Carlos Rueda asked for a six year prison sentence — three years on both counts — because he said the evidence indicated White was
trying to shoot at the victim, as the five shots track across the bus as if following a moving target.
“This is not a case where he is just shooting at the air or the ground or a really concentrated area to scare a person,” Rueda said. “We believe this type of gun violence should not be tolerated and requires prison.” Rueda also noted White made the decision to arm himself with a gun.
“We don’t think he just ‘lost his cool,’ he purposefully and intentionally brought that revolver from his house,” Rueda said. “That is more than losing someone’s cool, that is bringing a deadly weapon to a fight.”
Mulvahill agreed the evidence did lead to some doubts about White’s intentions. “Here’s what is obvious to me… You took five shots across the length of that bus, the bus that the victim was hiding behind,” Mulvahill said. “The inference is you were trying to do more than scare him.” Mulvahill also said he did not agree with Mayberry that a probation sentence was appropriate.
“What you did is just not tolerable,” Mulvahill said. “There needs to be a period of incarceration because the DA’S point about gun violence is well taken.”
But ultimately, Mulvahill said that White accepted responsibility and the shooting appeared to be “completely out of character” given White’s lack of serious criminal history. “That’s what kept you out of prison,” Mulvahill said.
White was remanded into the custody of the Boulder County Jail after the hearing to await a community corrections bed.