Duran Article #2

Duran gets 4 1/2-year term

By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer

June 24, 2000 - A judge sentenced a teary-eyed Philip Duran to 4 1/2 years in prison Friday for introducing Columbine High killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to the man who sold them one of their four guns.

Klebold fired the TEC-DC9 semi-automatic handgun 55 times, killing Corey DePooter, Daniel Rohrbough, John Tomlin and Lauren Townsend and wounding two others.

"I apologize to you for my part and ask you for forgiveness," Duran told more than 50 relatives of victims.

"I am willing to take my punishment," Duran, 23, said before being led handcuffed from the courtroom. "I'm sorry I had anything to do with it. I'm sorry because you had to come today because of my involvement."

At the time of the April 20, 1999, shootings - which left 15 dead and 21 wounded - Duran's younger brother and sister were in the school. His sister hid under a desk.

While dozens of Duran's friends and family attended the hearing to show support, even more turned out in honor of the victims and to close the criminal proceedings stemming from the massacre.

For more than 2 1/2 hours, victims' families quieted the courtroom with eloquent eulogies. They also placed blame squarely on Duran's shoulders.

"Mr. Duran, you have broken the law because you chose to ignore it," said Dawn Anna, Townsend's mother. "You knew (Harris and Klebold) were under age.

"No, Mr. Duran, you didn't pull the trigger on the TEC-9. But you were the money runner. You had knowledge and you participated in it. You were at the head of the line."

After the sentencing, Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas said there will never be closure to Columbine.

"It is too huge of an event," Thomas said.

But he called the sentence by District Court Judge Thomas Woodford fair.

"This sentence goes a long way in deterring people who would give guns to kids," said prosecutor Steve Jensen. "Four-and-a-half years is a very long sentence for someone who has never been in trouble before."

Duran had worked at a neighborhood Blackjack Pizza shop with Harris and Klebold. When Harris and Klebold told Duran they wanted to buy guns, Duran introduced them in January 1999 to friend Mark Manes at a gun show.

Manes sold them a TEC-DC9 for $500, with Duran ferrying the final $200 payment from the killers to Manes.

Manes, 23, pleaded guilty in August to providing a handgun to minors. He was sentenced in November to six years in prison.

Duran's lawyer, Matt DePetro, said he "thought the judge had a difficult job to do.

"He did his best," DePetro said. "And I accept the judgment of the court."

Duran could have received a maximum of 18 years. He pleaded guilty to providing a handgun to minors last month. Harris and Klebold were both 17 at the time of the gun sale.

The pair's other three guns were bought for them at a gun show by Klebold friend Robyn Anderson. She has not been charged because she bought so-called long guns - a rifle and two shotguns - from private sellers.

Woodford noted that Duran had no prior record. But he said probation would be "a slap on the wrist."

"I think it has to be a prison sentence so as not to depreciate" the seriousness of the crime, though the judge described Duran as just "one small part" in the tragedy.

"The magnitude of the horror is what is just overwhelming in this case. I say it is incomprehensible," the judge said.

Townsend's stepfather, Bruce Beck, read the names of the 13 slaying victims in court.

Beck told Duran that "these are not just names, they are people - people murdered because of the direct actions of Mr. Duran."

A gifted athlete and straight-A student, Townsend had planned to devote her life to helping animals and the environment.

Duran not only knew he was helping Harris and Klebold illegally obtain the TEC-DC9, but he went shooting with them in the mountains and knew they had two illegally sawed-off shotguns, Beck said. Yet, Duran didn't turn the pair in, and all the weapons were later used in the Columbine massacre.

After the sentencing, Beck said he had hoped Duran would get more prison time.

But he said he was happy that Duran didn't receive probation, which Duran wanted.

"His family will get to see him again," Beck said. "We will never get to see Lauren again." Woodford also sentenced Duran to 2 1/2 years for possessing a dangerous weapon in connection with shooting one of the illegal sawedoff shotguns possessed by the killers during a March 6, 1999, targetshooting outing with Harris and Klebold in the foothills southwest of Littleton. Woodford ordered that sentence to run concurrent with the 4 1/2-year sentence.