Late on Friday, December 12, 2008, according to the CBI, Minnick, a former Brighton police officer, was on the job at the Rose when he and a fellow employee confronted three people near the back entrance to the venue.
The reason for the dust-up? The CBI account maintains that the trio in question "complained of [the guards'] presence." But a 17th Judicial District DA's office release maintains the real issue involved Minnick and his cohort becoming suspicious because the individuals behind the club were masking their identity with bandannas.Before long, a gun was pulled and Minnick was shot. He was transported to a local hospital but soon perished from his wounds.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, an alert went out for the trio, described as being in their teens to early twenties, standing between five-four and five-seven and sporting slender builds. They were last seen running south to a vehicle, described as a mid-1990s SUV, from which they fled the scene.
No new information surfaced about the killing for years after that. But then, in March 2013, the 17th Judicial District DA's office, in conjunction with the Adams County Sheriff's Office, announced the arrest of three people in the crime, following indictments by a grand jury. The alleged shooter was ID'd as Gerald Gurule, now 32. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted first-degree murder and three counts of felony menacing. Also implicated was Lewis, accused of the same beefs plus six accessory-to-a-crime counts. And Stanley Gurule, who was in his early fifties, was hit with two counts of accessory to a crime, as well.Along the way, the elder Gurule appears to have dropped off prosecutors' radar. But not Lewis, who has now been found guilty of first-degree murder/extreme indifference, plus attempted murder times three; the DA's office maintains Minnick was actually joined on the fateful night by two security guards and an off-duty police officer.
Lewis is set to be sentenced on April 24, four days prior to the start of Gurule's trial. And we doubt her conviction strikes him as a positive indicator for him.
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More from our Follow That Story archive circa April 2013: "Video: Nathan Leon's widow livid at mistaken early release of killer Evan Ebel."
