Denzer receives life without parole for 1996 shooting spree

Published 8:40 pm Monday, December 5, 2005

VALDOSTA — Allen Denzer avoided a possible death sentence on Wednesday by pleading guilty but mentally ill to murder for the 1996 shooting spree that left Bill Moses dead and four others wounded.

Superior Court Judge Harry Jay Altman sentenced Denzer to life without the possibility of parole.

In exchange for the plea, Southern Circuit District Attorney David Miller agreed to waive his request for the death penalty.

Denzer, 43, also pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated battery, one count of aggravated assault and one count of aggravated assault on a peace officer. He received the maximum 20-year sentence on each of the charges and will serve that time concurrently with the life sentence.

Denzer, dressed in a red prison uniform, kept his eyes downcast and quietly answered Altman’s questions about the sentence.

“You have taken a life,” Altman said while imposing sentence. “You have used weapons like they were a toy in a Cracker Jack box, and for that there is no sentence I can give you, no punishment I can mete out that will undo it.”

Defense attorney Converse Bright said the plea at least spared Denzer the death penalty.

“In view of a 20-year history of paranoid schizophrenia, it is inevitable that he would spend his life in some sort of institution,” he said.

Miller said a death penalty conviction would have been difficult, given Denzer’s documented history of mental illness.

“We have to deal with the facts that we have, and I think it a reasonable resolution with the facts we were dealing with,” he said. “It was a horrific crime, but the fact is his long history of mental illness would have been clear at a jury trial.

“I think there is a substantial chance that 12 jurors would have had a difficult time coming to a unanimous verdict to recommend the death penalty. Faced with that reality, we felt the proper thing to do was accept the guilty but mentally ill plea and ensure that (Denzer) will spend the rest of his life in prison.”

One of the shooting victims, Frank Lathron, said there was an obvious problem with the legal system during his victim impact statement.

“There’s something wrong when a man named Bill Moses is not here and that man is here living,” he said. “In this case, the legal system missed the boat.”

Moses’ widow, Cindy, agreed the system was flawed in a written statement. She said she did not want the death penalty for Denzer, but noted the crime had particularly impacted her 8-year-old son as well as the other victims.

“The criminal has more rights than the victim,” she wrote. “YOU will never know or feel their loss. We will. We will suffer. We will have to live with the choices that OTHER PEOPLE have made for us. It just doesn’t seem to be fair, does it?”

Denzer has been confined at Central State Hospital in Milledgeville since February 1999 for paranoid schizophrenia. Court documents state that Denzer believes he is a special prophet of God, capable of seeing the future. He also suffers from paranoid delusions that his psychiatrists are members of the Mafia out to brainwash him through hypnosis and torture, the documents state.

Denzer was declared competent to stand trial in June 2001 by forensic psychiatrists at Central State Hospital, but all evaluations agreed he suffers from mental illness and should be entitled to the guilty but mentally ill plea. He is medicated with anti-psychotic drugs to control delusions and auditory hallucinations.

On Aug. 30, 1996, Denzer approached the now-closed Office Grill on Park Avenue after being forced to leave the establishment the night before for making a lewd comment to a female bartender. Moses, the owner, walked outside to confront Denzer, who was carrying a Glock 10 mm semiautomatic handgun and a .38 special revolver in two shoulder holsters.

Denzer shot Moses twice, once in the chest and once in the buttocks, kicked him after he fell, and shot Moses three more times in the back. He then entered the bar and fired several more shots, hitting Lathron and three others.

Police





officers quickly responded to the scene, and Denzer fired four shots at Special Agent Gerald Winningham before surrendering.

Denzer was originally charged with burglary and five counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in addition to the murder and assault charges.

He will likely serve out his sentence in a psychiatric ward in an as yet undetermined Georgia prison.



To contact reporter Bill Roberts, please call 244-3400, ext. 245.