By Matt Ward
Jurors found Daniel Robbins guilty of second degree murder Tuesday evening in connection with the Aug. 18, 2011 shooting death of Chris Mundy, a 21-year-old man who was dating one of Robbins’ daughters at the time.
The jury also convicted Robbins of three other serious felony charges. He is expected to get as much as life in prison when he is sentenced on Feb. 11.
Jurors were escorted out of the courthouse by police after the verdict was read.
Robbins’ family members, who attended court each day wearing purple and yellow in support of the defendant, were shaken by the jury’s unanimous decision. Mundy’s family was jubilant after the verdict was read.
Robbins escaped the most serious charge, first degree murder, which Deputy District Attorney Tierra Jones had argued in her closing summation was what Robbins deserved.
Still, Robbins will likely face a minimum of 10 years in prison just for the murder charge. Add an enhancement for use of a deadly weapon and sentences on two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and battery with a deadly weapon and sources say he could get as much as 24 years to life.
Robbins was visibly stunned when the verdict was read, looking to his wife, Kathie, from the defense table.
Robbins has been incarcerated since the ordeal started. It unfolded when Mundy showed up at Robbins’ home after a heated Facebook exchange with the defendant and his wife earlier in the evening of Aug. 17, 2011. Robbins confronted Mundy in the driveway of his Benson Circle home, firing one shot into the bumper of the vehicle Mundy was driving before walking up to the driver side window, sticking the gun against Mundy’s neck and pulling the trigger.
Robbins’ defense attorneys contended the shooting was accidental. They told jurors throughout the trial that Robbins was within his rights to defend himself and his property against Mundy, who was repeatedly referred to as an intruder and trespasser during defense closing arguments Tuesday morning.
The murder charge and one assault charge against Robbins stemmed from shooting Mundy. The other assault charge and battery charge stemmed from an injury sustained by a juvenile passenger in the car Mundy was in at the time of the shooting. Pablo Flores, 15, was struck in the arm by the bullet that passed through Mundy’s neck.
Jones argued forcefully for a conviction on all charges during her closing arguments, but especially asked for a guilty verdict on first degree murder. She argued in her summation that Robbins met the criteria for first degree murder, which includes any “willful, deliberate and premeditated” act that leads to the death of another person.
“Daniel Robbins wanted Chris Mundy dead and he knew he was going to kill him,” Jones told the jury.
She said numerous pieces of evidence pointed to Robbins’ guilt of the most serious charge, including initiating a salty Facebook exchange with Mundy, who had previously only been in contact with Robbins’ wife. Also, Robbins told Mundy to “bring it” when the victim said he would come over to the Robbins home. Moreover, she said, Robbins, who the day before called the police on his own daughter, Mundy’s girlfriend Jennifer, didn’t call the police on Mundy.
Instead, he grabbed a loaded pistol, took the safety off and confronted the victim.
“He said ‘bring it.’ You decide whether that says stay away from my house. He said ‘bring it.’ And he Robbins told you that shortly after that a car drives up in his driveway, his wife runs outside, screaming ‘he’s here, he’s here’ and the defendant told you that he knew Chris Mundy was in his driveway. He knew that. . . . When the defendant is made aware that Chris Mundy is in his driveway, what does he do? He told you. He got up. He got dressed. He put his pants on, he put his shoes on. He got his gun out of the night stand. . . . he knows it’s loaded, and he’s headed outside to face Chris Mundy. What does he tell you he does on his way? He releases the safety on that gun,” Jones told the jurors.
Robbins took the stand last week in his own defense and told the jury he merely wanted to scare Mundy with the gun. Jones told jurors not to believe that. She said they should instead use their common sense and see that by taking the safety off his weapon, Robbins had demonstrated premeditation as well as other elements of first degree murder.
“Could you scare somebody with a gun with the safety on? Could you scare somebody with an unloaded gun? You can. But you can’t kill somebody with an unloaded gun. You can’t kill somebody with a gun while the safety’s on,” she said. “Because the defendant intended to kill Chris, he made sure he did everything to get that gun ready so that when he walked out that courtyard he could start shooting.”
Jones also pointed out to jurors that deputies who took the stand during the trial all testified to how calm Robbins was the night of the shooting, unlike someone who’d just been involved in an accident.
“Kathie was hysterical. You hear it on the 911 call. Kathie’s hysterical, she hasn’t shot anybody. What is the defendant doing? Every responding deputy told you he’s calm, just walking around outside the house. You just killed a kid and you’re just walking around outside your house. He intended to kill Chris and his mission had been accomplished,” she said to the jury.
During her closing, Jones flashed two photos from the scene of the shooting, one of which was a close-up of the entry wound to Mundy’s neck — gun powder burns indicated how close the weapon was to Mundy’s skin when it was fired. The second photo was more grisly. It showed Mundy slumped over in the driver’s seat of the car he was in, blood streaming down his face and neck.
Las Vegas attorney Dan Winder made closing arguments for the defense.
He said the prosecution’s characterization of the evidence was distorted. Winder told the jury that Robbins was simply defending his castle as he has every right to do, that Mundy ignored repeated warnings to stay away from the home, and then unbelievably decided to show up at the house at 1:30 in the morning, though he’d never even met the Robbins before that night.
Winder said that Mundy was trespassing on the Robbins property in the darkness of night and his ultimate intentions were unknown. He never turned off his car and he never got out, and when he refused to leave after at least three or four more verbal warnings, Robbins had no choice but to point the gun right at Mundy. Tragically, the gun accidentally fired, he said.
“He comes over to the side. He’s still yelling, get off my property. He comes to the driver’s window. Now he can see it’s a young man. But he doesn’t know, he still can’t see his hand. He doesn’t know what they’re doing, he doesn’t even see Pablo in the passenger seat. . . . He put the gun in. His intent was to scare; he was frightened himself; he was in fear, concerned and upset. And there’s Pablo who told you what happened next,” Winder said, before playing a clip of Flores’ testimony from the trial, which indicated that Robbins was in mid-sentence, another verbal warning, when the gun he was holding against Mundy’s neck discharged.
Winder told the jury that the state didn’t prove its case.
“We can’t bring Chris Mundy back. But that saying, two wrongs don’t make a right, there is insufficient evidence to convict Danny Robbins of any crime,” Winder said.
Wes White, a former Nye County prosecutor, told the Pahrump Valley Times that Robbins had been offered a plea deal for second degree murder without use of a deadly weapon but refused the deal. He said Robbins’ attorneys sought instead a manslaughter plea agreement early in the case, but the district attorney’s office refused.
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- Horace Langford Jr. / Pahrump Valley Times – A stunned Daniel Robbins looks over at his wife, Kathie, after the verdict in his murder trial is read Tuesday evening. Robbins faces life in prison.
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- Horace Langford Jr. / Pahrump Valley Times – Deputy District Attorney Tierra Jones delivers the state’s closing arguments Tuesday in the murder trial of Daniel Robbins.
The Jurors made the right call. Thank you for your unselfish service.
It is always a sad story when someone is killed but, doesn’t a person who acted like Mundy bear responsibility for the events that unfolded? I mean, he is having a heated argument with Robbins, then shows up at robbins home at 1:30 in the morning. Certainly not to share a friendly chat over a glass of wine. I can tell you if someone fired a bullet in to the bumper of my car I would be heading for safer ground. What could Mundy have been thinking. In these circumstances Mundy appears to be a threat and Robbins was defending himself at his home. He could not have anticipated Mundy’s next move potentially intending to use the car as a lethal weapon.
Are we no longer the master of our home and property? When did the owner of a property become open to trespass by an aggressor without consequences. The law needs to be clear on trespass and consequences on those who do.
My sympathies go out to both families.
“The law needs to be clear on trespass and consequences on those who do.”
It is, you can’t SHOOT someone for trespass. Take a course at Front Sight or any CCW class around and you will learn that.
You’re out to lunch on this one Truth and Consequences. Give it up.
I can confidently say that justice has been served for the Mundy family. Robbins got what he deserved and he will have to live with that for the rest of his life. No one has the right to take away another persons life. The jury made the right decision. You do the crime, you do the time. Plain and simple.
Perhaps in this case the jury did get it right (I dont know all the facts) but I disagree with your ‘blanket’ statement about being able to take a life. If anyone was to break into my home and I felt it was a life threatening situation they would be the ones to lose a life before I would (at least defend myself and family). Pacifism generally isn’t a good posture when dealing with someone who wishes to do bodily harm and those that try end up as a statistic. If you want to be an asterisk in some crime report that’s up to you.
But he didn’t “break into my home ” he was in his car in the driveway.
This is a unnecessary tragedy for all involved.
Good, one less murderer off the streets of Pahrump. You dont point loaded guns at people to scare them off your property.
Agree, you pull your weapon for one reason and one reason only, to kill. If you do, you better be able to show you feared for your life. If you pull it to scare someone, that’s brandishing, which is illegal. As far as trespassing goes, you call the cops, have the person 86 off the property, and they will be arrested if they come back. For them just being there is NOT reason for you to pull your weapon, they would have to be threatening your life in some way.
Could it have been that Mundy would have killed Robbins? One will never know. This was not just trespass, it included anger,aggression and the potential for harm by both sides. Would any of you have appeared at the house at 1:30 am without some thought of a confrontation? Sadly Mundy was an active participant who would be alive today if he had not been on the property. Mundy should have been somewhere else, maybe at home, anywhere but at the Robbins home.
But that is why 911 was invented.
If anyone thinks 911 is the first line of defense they are mistaken. A crime is occuring otherwise why would one call 911? Several things could happen before the police arrive and that is assuming they would arrive in time to ‘prevent’ something further from happening. This is of course situational dependent so in this particular case it may or may not have solved the problem as the story does not say when the 911 call was placed but elludes to it after the shooting took place. My point is that people should have another plan if they only rely on 911 to save themselves.
Mundy bears responsibility for his own death. He was wrong to show up in that situation, and utterly stupid to do it in the middle of the night.
Yes, Robbins is legally at fault, and for that the jury findings are true to the law. But make no mistake, human law is such that if you do something as foolish as Mundy did, bad things will happen. It might have been a physical altercation where either Mundy or Robbins was injured. It could have been Mundy killing Robbins. It ended up with Mundy dead.
Mundy clearly brought it on himself. He is not the only victim in this situation.
blame the victim???
Instead of a simple, quizzical reply, why don’t you reread my post and indicate to me where you are in disagreement.
mr. or mrs. cat,
What is this “human law” your talking about? Mundy was a kid and Robbins wanted to kill him.
If anything human law would have found him guilty of the first degree murder charge and hang um him on the spot. Your sympathetic view and the alternate endings that you choose to mix up your weak ass comment won’t work. Mundys dead, and you placing the blame on him is wrong.
The article clearly states that Mundy was a ’21 year old MAN’ What he did do was act as an irrational kid to drive over to the residence at that time of night. In my household you were a man at 18, if one can legally drive, vote, buy smokes and even liquor they should be considered an adult.
Would some of you quit trying to defend Robbins. There is no defense. It is ENTIRELY HIS FAULT!!! The jury agrees. Stop trying to place ANY amount of blame on the victim.
“Would some of you quit trying to defend Robbins. There is no defense. It is ENTIRELY HIS FAULT!!! The jury agrees. Stop trying to place ANY amount of blame on the victim.”
I totally agree with Robert. Justice has been served & God Bless the Mundy family.
You’re right Robert. No need to shout.
It’s obvious Robbins planned to hunt Mundy down and shoot him. Mundy was just hanging out with his bud in Robbins driveway at one thirty in the morning.
Juries are never wrong, they are always allowed to consider every bit of evidence and the lawyers would never hold anything back.
I completely agree. How can you defend Robbins when the man clearly has no remorse for his poor, and unnecessary actions? You have to be completely delusional to believe that Robbins should be free.
We all have opinions…mine is that we need to let the families heal and the only way to do that is stop the instigating remarks and just wish for peace for all involved. I truly pray for strength, healing, and blessings as everyone in this situation is a victim of some sort. God bless……
No verdict of either guilt or innocence could bring life for the victim,solace
for the victim’s family,nor reconciliation for the man who ended the other man’s life. We have learned so little. For the love of God,and,country;let’s put our guns away.What a waste.
Robbins knew what he was doing plain and simple…. he was close enough to leave powder burns on the boys skin… once he fired his gun into an occupied car ( the warning shot into the bumper ) he had commited a felony and mundy would have been justified to protect himself….look it up if you don’t belive me…I did.
all of you defending this physcopath … the jury saw through his B.S. and voted unamimously to convict his sorry butt.
he is going where he belongs. period. now he can visit his family from behind bullet proof glass for the rest of his life…. thats more then mundy’s family will ever get and more then robbins deserves.