{"id":16645,"date":"2025-09-04T22:50:41","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/jury-returns-guilty-verdict-in-ignacio-cold-case\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:00:02","slug":"jury-returns-guilty-verdict-in-ignacio-cold-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/jury-returns-guilty-verdict-in-ignacio-cold-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury returns guilty verdict in Ignacio cold case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Larry
Larry Fuller is seen in an undated family photograph. Fuller was shot on Jan. 1, 2009, by David Hendren, who was found guilty of first-degree murder on Thursday. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A jury on Thursday convicted an Arizona man of first-degree murder for shooting and killing an Ignacio man on New Year\u2019s Day in 2009.<\/p>\n

David Hendren remained standing and showed little reaction to the verdict. He is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Oct. 13.<\/p>\n

Hendren was accused of shooting and killing Larry John Fuller early Jan. 1, 2009, after he mistook Fuller for someone else following a bar fight in Ignacio.<\/p>\n

Chris Madril, Fuller\u2019s stepson who attended the jury decision, said the verdict gives him and his family some measure of resolution after more than 16 years of trying to bring Fuller\u2019s killer to justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, we got a little closure,\u201d he said. \u201cMy family and I would like to thank the prosecution and investigators and also the jury as well. I mean, without all of them, we would have never got any of this. It would just remain cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trial, which began Aug. 25, was the second time a jury was asked to rule on the case. A Feb. 19 trial ended in a mistrial.<\/a><\/p>\n

Madril said this time around, the prosecution presented the same evidence, but with a better argument for why Hendren was guilty \u2013 including testimony from Angel Garcia, who was with Hendren the night of the shooting, and from Hendren\u2019s ex-girlfriend, who Hendren had allegedly confided in and told her he had killed someone.<\/p>\n

Derek Levy, a juror, said there was ample evidence that helped jurors make their verdict in a day after both the prosecution and defense rested their cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prosecution stated a pretty rock-solid case,\u201d Levy said. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a whole lot of debate as far as the details and whatnot. So it seemed to be a fairly easy decision for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

He clarified that just because the case had ample evidence, it was not an easy case to decide.<\/p>\n

\"Hendren\"
Hendren<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sixth Judicial District Attorney Sean Murray wrote in a statement that he is satisfied with the ruling and glad to bring Fuller\u2019s family justice and closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe District Attorney\u2019s Office would like to express tremendous gratitude to the jury for the service,\u201d Murray said. \u201cWe are proud that Mr. Larry Fuller\u2019s family finally has justice and hope that this verdict will provide some measure of closure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision comes more than 16 years after Fuller was shot by Hendren after being mistaken for someone Hendren had been in a fight with in the Sidekick Lounge in Ignacio early on New Year\u2019s Day, 2009. For nearly 14 years, the case went cold until it was opened when two witnesses stepped forward in 2023.<\/p>\n

For Madril and his family, the road to finding closure in Fuller\u2019s death has been long and brutal. Now that Hendren has been convicted, Madril said, they can continue to heal, though the pain will always be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will never go away,\u201d he said. \u201cWe still have a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madril said Fuller was a kind soul with a lot of love for his friends and family who was taken too soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just a loving, caring guy,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was a giant of a man, and he was just a giant teddy bear. He\u2019d do anything for anybody. I mean, no hesitation. Loved to be around family, laugh, joke \u2013 just have a good time. \u2026 (He) wasn\u2019t the type of guy to have any enemies or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

sedmondson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

An earlier version of this story erred in saying two witnesses stepped forward in 2013. They came forward in 2023<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hendren shot and killed Larry John Fuller on New Year\u2019s Day 2009<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1078,28,131,1235],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-6th-judicial-district","tag-headlines","tag-homicide","tag-ignacio"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16645"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20314,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16645\/revisions\/20314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16645"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}