A Durango man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for breaking into another man’s apartment and shooting him multiple times in August 2023.
Troy Allen Brown, 35, appeared before 6th Judicial District Judge Nathaniel Baca after pleading guilty to burglary and second-degree assault as part of plea agreement with the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
He was facing five to 16 years in prison in accordance with the plea agreement.
On Aug. 9, 2023, Brown forced his way into the apartment of 52-year-old Thomas Mitchell at the Red Cliff Apartment Complex and shot him multiple times with a handgun.
Mitchell was airlifted to a Colorado Springs hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. Despite the severity of his injuries, he survived and attended Thursday’s sentencing hearing.
Mitchell told police that Brown had made comments during the incident saying that Mitchell was a predator, suggesting that was Brown’s motive for the attack.
Police confirmed that Mitchell is a registered sex offender.
Brown surrendered to police about 20 hours after the shooting. He was taken into custody in the 2700 block of East Animas Road (County Road 250), a short distance across the Animas River from where the shooting took place.
Baca chided Brown for taking the law into his own hands. The fact that Brown used the sex offender registry, which is public, as a tool to target Mitchell, who was a complete stranger, is concerning, he said. Mitchell had already paid his dues and served his time, and it is not OK for people to exact their own vengeance.
“It’s very clear to the court that this is a situation or an incident that no one should have to go through,” Baca said.
Brown’s ex-wife Chelsea Knipp and his former employer Mark Short spoke on his behalf before the sentencing.
Both shared how Brown was a man who loved his family and was a hard worker.
Knipp told the court about the trauma and sexual abuse Brown faced as a child, compounded with substance use issues he struggled with from a young age.
She talked about how she’s watched Brown’s past demons “steal the happiness from his eyes.”
“He lives and breathes for his children,” she said. “Troy’s their superhero, their protector, their everything.”
Short told the court that Brown was always well respected at work and clients loved him. Brown worked for him from 2019 to 2023.
“In the years I worked with Troy, we never got into an argument,” Short said. “He was always respectful and polite.”
Brown’s defense attorney, Ryan Day, pushed for a sentence on the lower end of five-to-16-year sentencing spectrum, citing Brown’s past struggles with substance use and sex abuse trauma and the need for him to seek treatment.
He also highlighted the combination of medications prescribed to Brown at the time of the incident, suggesting the extreme dosage might have influenced the crime.
“He’s engaged in about 41 weeks of mental health services from Axis while being incarcerated,” Day said.
Mitchell also made a statement to the court Thursday. He asked that the court give Brown the maximum sentence of 16 years and make him pay the maximum restitution.
He asked the court not to set a precedent for people to try to kill those on the sex offender registry.
“There’s no registry for attempted murders like there is for me,” Mitchell said
He told the court that he shouldn’t be standing there because he should be dead, adding that Brown had the gun pointed at his temple but “by God’s grace, he ran out of bullets.”
“I did everything I was supposed to do and this man comes and tries to kill me,” he said, adding that he paid his dues for the crime he committed.
While handing down Brown’s sentence, Baca asked him why he sought out Mitchell specifically.
Brown had no definitive answer, but said he no longer recognizes the person in himself who committed the crime.
Brown showed remorse and apologized for targeting and shooting Mitchell.
“I’m not God; I don’t get to make those decisions,” he said.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
