Steve Bushaw murder case: Today’s brief proceedings

We’re continuing to follow the case of the four people charged with murdering 26-year-old Steve Bushaw in The Junction two years ago. On Monday, just as the trial was about to begin with pre-jury-selection proceedings, one of the two alleged triggermen, 29-year-old Danny O’Neal, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge, second-degree murder. The official document from Monday’s hearing is now available, and there’s an update to O’Neal’s potential sentence: After prosecutors recommend the low end of the 123-220-month “standard range,” whatever the judge decides will have 60 months added to it for the “firearm enhancement,” meaning he faces a minimum of 15 years.

Meantime, the remaining three defendants, Bryce Huber, John Sylve, and Brandon Chaney – all still charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder – returned to court this morning. No additional plea bargains so far, prosecutor James Konat told Judge Joan DuBuque, but they are still in negotiations, and the lawyers asked for a few more days to keep talking. The judge gave them until Tuesday morning, which is when the pretrial proceedings will resume if there is no resolution to the case this week (next Monday is a holiday). It’s alleged that O’Neal and Sylve shot Bushaw after talking with Huber, who met up with him at Talarico’s that night and went outside with him just before the shooting; Chaney is the alleged getaway-car driver. The motive: Huber allegedly suspected Bushaw of involvement in a home-invasion robbery targeting a friend; police have said there was no evidence linking Bushaw to that case.

2 Replies to "Steve Bushaw murder case: Today's brief proceedings"

  • wsmom January 12, 2011 (1:09 pm)

    Why would the prosecutors office continue to even accept more plea deals when they already accepted one and have a videotaped detailed confession. Don’t we want the rest of these guys sentenced to the fullest extent of the law? Am I missing something?

  • waterworld January 12, 2011 (5:01 pm)

    Some of the reasons why prosecutors offer pleas in cases that seem like slam-dunks include (a) every trial involves a risk of loss, (b) plea bargains save the county lots of money, (c) the prosecutor’s office is under-staffed and cannot try all the cases it could win, and (d) the sentence after a plea may be quite similar to the sentence that would be obtained after a trial.

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