Duran Article #1

2nd man charged in gun probe

By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer

June 18 - Prosecutors filed charges Thursday against a second person in connection with the Columbine High School massacre, accusing a 22-year-old of helping Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold buy the semi-automatic handgun they used in the rampage.

Philip Joseph Duran, 22, worked with the gunmen at a Blackjack Pizza store and introduced them to friend Mark Manes, who sold them the TECDC9 in late January. Duran, who has no previous arrests, was charged with unlawfully providing a handgun to minors and possessing a dangerous or illegal weapon.

Duran, who lives in Denver, surrendered at the Jefferson County Jail at 3:45 p.m. Thursday. He was freed after posting a $15,000 bond.

He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of both counts. Manes, 22, the only other person arrested in the case, has been charged with providing a handgun to juveniles. He's due back in court Wednesday, when prosecutors will lodge a charge of possessing a dangerous or illegal weapon against him.

The other three guns used in the April 20 attack were bought for Harris and Klebold by Klebold's prom date, 18-year-old Robyn Anderson. She has not been charged.

"The sheriff's department doesn't anticipate any additional arrests in the near future,'' Division Chief John Kiekbusch said.

Duran's arrest "closes the circle with regard to the TEC-9,'' said Mark Pautler, a chief deputy in the district attorney's office. The investigation into whether others had prior knowledge of the rampage that left 15 dead - including Harris and Klebold - and 23 injured is ongoing, Pautler and Kiekbusch said.

Duran's lawyer, Matt DePetro, did not return phone calls Thursday.

According to an arrest affidavit, this is how authorities believe Harris and Klebold got the gun:

Manes bought the TEC-DC9 at the Tanner Gun Show in Adams County on Aug. 2, 1998.

Harris and Klebold later asked Duran if he knew how they could buy a gun, and Duran introduced them to Manes at a Tanner show on Jan. 23.

Manes offered to sell them his TEC-DC9 for $500.

Later that evening, Klebold phoned Manes and went to his house on West Alder Avenue. He gave Manes an initial payment of $300 and drove away with the gun. Two weeks later, Harris and Klebold - both 17 at the time - gave Duran the $200 balance, and he passed it on to Manes.

On March 6, Duran, Manes and Manes' girlfriend, Jessica Lynne Miklich, went shooting with Harris and Klebold in the Rampart foothills southwest of Littleton. There they allegedly fired an illegal, or sawed-off, shotgun, which prompted the possession charge against Duran and Manes.

Miklich told investigators that Harris and Klebold had two sawed-off shotguns and the TEC-DC9 at the rendezvous. Nathan Dykeman, a friend of Klebold, Harris and Duran, told detectives he later watched a video showing Harris, Klebold, Duran, Manes and Miklich shooting a double-barreled sawed-off shotgun and a pump-action sawed-off shotgun in Rampart.

The arrest warrant quotes Duran as saying that in March, he "went to Rampart to go shooting with Harris and Klebold, and that they had two sawed-off shotguns with barrels and stocks cut down.''

Dan Recht, the Miklich family lawyer, told The Denver Post that until the March trip to the mountains, Miklich "had never shot a gun before.

"Her boyfriend is interested in guns and he said, "Do you want to come along?' and she said, "Sure.' She thought it was a purely legal thing to do.''

Miklich never heard Harris and Klebold mention their plot to attack the school, Recht said.

Robert Ransome, Manes' lawyer, said weeks ago he feared his client might become a scapegoat in the Columbine massacre. "I've seen nothing to dissipate that fear,'' he said Thursday.

Denver Post staff writers Marilyn Robinson and David Olinger contributed to this report.