photo by: Mike Yoder

Danny Queen, of Eudora, enters Douglas County District Court, Friday, Jan. 4, 2019, for sentencing on second-degree murder and other convictions related to a shooting outside a Eudora bar in 2017.

Story updated at 1:11 p.m. Friday

The man who fatally shot another man outside a Eudora bar, then tried to kill two others, was sentenced Friday to nearly 19 years in prison.

Danny W. Queen, 37, of Eudora, had previously argued that he was a good candidate for probation, while prosecutors and the slain man’s family asked for the maximum sentence of 260 months in prison.

Judge Peggy Kittel announced her sentencing decision of 226 months Friday in Douglas County District Court. She also denied Queen’s request for a new trial.

“He is a violent offender — he took someone’s life,” Kittel said, explaining why she would not agree to probation for Queen.

On Aug. 1, a jury convicted Queen of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Bo M. Hopson, 32, of Eudora. Jurors also found Queen guilty of attempted second-degree murder for trying to kill bar patron Clark Orth and guilty of attempted voluntary manslaughter for trying to kill patron Dustin Crowe. 

photo by: Contributed photo

Bo M. Hopson

Queen shot Hopson shortly after 1 a.m. June 24, 2017, outside D-Dubs Bar and Grill, 10 W. Ninth St. in Eudora.

At the first portion of Queen’s sentencing hearing in December, Hopson’s relatives and the two men Queen tried to kill shared emotional statements about how the event has affected them.

Queen’s appointed attorneys Dakota Loomis and Joshua Seiden had asked the judge to depart from state sentencing guidelines and grant Queen probation. Loomis said Queen wasn’t a threat to public safety, emphasizing that prior to this conviction he had no criminal history, served 13 years in the military, held down a good job and was a father.

Prosecutor Amy McGowan said that “no matter how he lived his life up until that night,” Queen’s actions at D-Dubs proved he is a threat to the public.

“The defendant is now a convicted murderer,” McGowan said.

In sentencing Queen on Friday, the judge emphasized that his respectable past “cuts two ways.”

Queen made a “serious error in judgment” when he should have known better, Kittel said.

“He is a threat, given his lack of judgment in carrying a loaded weapon into a bar after he’d been drinking, and continued to drink,” Kittel said.

“All the evidence in this trial shows that Mr. Queen was itching for a fight that night. Numerous times, he could have just left.”

The night Hopson was shot was Eudora’s annual CPA Picnic, and Hopson was working security at the small-town bar.

Queen had been drinking heavily and got kicked out of the bar after making offensive comments to women inside. He scuffled with other bar patrons before being lifted onto a trailer in the parking lot to calm down. Hopson stood nearby and offered to help Queen find a ride home.

Instead of accepting, Queen pulled a handgun from his pocket and shot Hopson twice. Hopson was expected to pull through, but he died the next day following complications after surgery at the University of Kansas hospital in Kansas City, Kan.

Taking the stand at his own trial, Queen said he felt frightened after being attacked by others at the bar, where he didn’t know anyone else. Queen claimed he heard Hopson threaten him, so he fired in self-defense.

McGowan, however, said evidence didn’t support that, theorizing that Queen was angry after being “bested” by others in the bar. Before he died, Hopson told a friend that he heard Queen say, “What do you think about this?” before Queen rose up and shot him.

Most attendees were stoic throughout Queen’s sentencing hearing on Friday. They included about 20 of Hopson’s relatives and supporters, plus several of Queen’s.

Queen himself did not display outward emotion before being led from the courtroom.

Following his eventual release from prison, Queen will face several years of post-release supervision and must also register as a violent offender for 15 years, Kittel said.

photo by: Mike Yoder

Danny Queen, of Eudora, enters Douglas County District Court, Friday, Jan. 4, 2019, for sentencing on second-degree murder and other convictions related to a shooting outside a Eudora bar in 2017.