A Tucson man who says he was the innocent victim of a large conspiracy was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday in the February 2006 slaying of a 33-year-old man.
Danny Musgrove, 44, will be eligible for release after 25 years for his first-degree-murder conviction in Michael Tyrone Lopez's death. If he is granted parole, he would then have to serve an extra 4 1/2 years on separate endangerment counts.
Prosecutors believe Lopez, Musgrove and some of Musgrove's friends got into a fight at the bar of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post at South Park Avenue and East 33rd Street.
Musgrove, 43, was knocked unconscious during the fight, and an hour later, Lopez was fatally shot at home in the 2700 block of South Coconino Vista.
Investigators found Musgrove's DNA in three locations at the house, including on a hollow-point bullet that was found inside Lopez's house with Musgrove's tissue on it.
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In Pima County Superior Court, Deputy County Attorney Jonathan Mosher and Lopez's mother, Christine Lopez, asked Judge Howard Fell to sentence Musgrove to "natural life," meaning no parole.
Christine Lopez described her son as a "young man with an old soul" who helped pay her bills and often performed landscaping services on a barter system to help those who didn't have the money to pay him.
Because he is no longer alive, Christine Lopez said she is now raising her son's youngest child, 5-year-old Malakai.
The prosecutor pointed out that Musgrove has spent most of his adult life in prison, and he doesn't behave himself there, either. If Musgrove ever gets out of prison again, Mosher said, the judge can be sure that he'll commit more violent acts.
Musgrove's mother, Ellar Musgrove, and a woman he raised, Vanessa Cephus, 20, told Fell that Musgrove isn't a violent man. They described him as a caring family man.
Ellar Musgrove suggested that her son's past prison terms were the result of an unjust criminal-justice system. The authorities wanted to make an "example" of him in one case and unfairly singled him out in the second case, she said. In the third case, he went to prison for driving under the influence and yet had a low blood-alcohol level, she said.
When defense attorney Michael Evans asked if her son should have a chance at freedom someday, Ellar Musgrove replied, "My son should not spend a day in prison."
Danny Musgrove told the Lopez family that he is sorry for its loss, but that he wasn't there when Lopez died. Mosher and others "contrived a scheme to deceive" the legal system that included eliciting perjured testimony and admitting false evidence, Musgrove said.
Lopez's body was moved to help strengthen Mosher's case against him, Musgrove said.
When Fell reminded him the point of Tuesday's hearing was to hear mitigating and aggravating factors, Musgrove said "It really makes me no difference whether you give me the death penalty or natural life."
Fell's only sentencing options on the murder conviction were life with release possible after 25 years or natural life.
Phillip Musgrove, Danny Musgrove's nephew, is scheduled to go to trial in an unrelated case next month.
Phillip Musgrove is accused of plowing through a row of eight cars stopped at a red light near the University of Arizona in November, slamming into two vehicles, and killing two people and injuring four others.
