Utah man who killed suspected ‘snitch’ gets life without parole

Provo • A 49-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Thursday for fatally shooting a man suspected of being a "snitch."

Danny Leroy Logue was convicted during a February jury trial 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 also was found guilty in 4th District Court of two first-degree felony counts of 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 when a controlled substance was used and obstructing justice.

On Thursday, 4th District Judge Derek Pullan determined Logue would serve the sentences consecutively.

"Murder is the worst kind of theft," Pullan said, adding later to Logue that "you stole Andy's life, and that life didn't belong to you."

Purcell's sister Kim Purcell described that loss during the hearing. Andy Purcell was not only a brother, son and friend, he was their electrician, carpenter, and the designated soda-bringer to family functions. They still get together, thinking he will be there with the soda.

He wanted a family of his own one day, too, she said.

"He was a sweet, kind person with a generous heart, and he is missed," Kim Purcell said.

Logue did not speak at the hearing. But at his trial, he testified that he never went to Purcell's house the night of the slaying.

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.

Prosecutors said at trial that the price for the killing was one ounce of methamphetamine.

But Logue testified at trial 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 by Morris of being hiring to beat up Purcell.

Logue said Morris drove off, leaving him "puking" in the parking lot, with no phone and no car. Forty-five minutes later, Morris picked him up again at the parking lot, Logue testified.

Prosecutors said at trial 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 prosecutors.

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 her son hours later, still alive, but he died the next day at a hospital.

mmcfall@sltrib.com