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Provo • Danny Leroy Logue was convicted Thursday of fatally shooting a man suspected of being a "snitch."
A 4th District Court jury deliberated for 12 hours over two days before finding Logue guilty of first-degree felony aggravated murder for the May 16, 2011, slaying of 32-year-old Andy Purcell on the front porch of his mother's Provo home.
Logue, 49, also was found guilty of two first-degree felony counts possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, as well as second-degree felony counts of possession of a dangerous weapon, knowingly being present with a controlled substance was used and obstructing justice.
He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced March 31 by 4th District Judge Derek Pullan.
Prosecutors said Purcell was killed after a drug dealer, Yuri Sanchez Lara, paid Logue's friend, Darrell Wayne Morris, in methamphetamine to beat up the victim, who Lara believed had informed police about his drug dealings.
Morris — who refused to testify at Logue's trial — admitted in plea agreement documents that he was contracted to beat up Purcell, and that he had asked Logue to help. He claimed that when they went to Purcell's Provo home, Logue suddenly pulled out a gun and fired several times toward the home, striking the victim once in the forehead.
"Andy Purcell was shot in the head on his own front porch," Deputy Utah County Attorney Ryan McBride said Wednesday during closing arguments. "He was left there bleeding, gasping for air for five hours. Why? For one ounce of methamphetamine. For one ounce of methamphetamine, the defendant took this man's life."
But Logue told jurors earlier this week that Morris had left him in a Provo motel parking lot on the evening of the shooting because Logue had food poisoning and was violently ill.
He testified that they were there to meet up with a different drug dealer, and there was no mention made that Morris had apparently been hired to beat up Purcell.
"I remember [Morris] was on the phone constantly," Logue testified. "We pulled up into the motel parking lot and he's like, 'We've got to wait here.' But I was upset because I felt like I was given bad food or poisoned or something. I was upset because I'm getting sick, I was puking."
Logue said Morris then drove off suddenly, leaving him in the parking lot, with no phone and no car. Forty-five minutes later, Morris picked him up again, Logue testified. He insisted that he had never been to Purcell's house that night.
"Are you the triggerman?" defense attorney Brook Sessions asked Monday.
"No," Logue replied. "No, I'm not."
"Were you there when Andy was shot?"
"No. I was not."
Prosecutor Curtis Larson told the jury during opening statements that events were put in motion May 5, 2011, when Lara got busted for methamphetamine distribution. The drug dealer thought it was Purcell who "snitched" to the police, the prosecutor said. Police, however, have said that the person who snitched on Lara was a woman caught with methamphetamine.
On the day of the shooting, Morris brought a bat and Logue brought a gun as they headed to Purcell's home, according to Larson.
Larson said Purcell was likely shot at around 2:15 a.m. on May 16, 2011, at which time Provo police responded to a "shots fired" call.
The officers found nothing amiss in the area and left.
Purcell's mother found him hours later, still alive, but he died the next day at a hospital.