Man sentenced to 4-plus years in death of original ‘Mickey Mouse Club’ cast member
https://apnews.com/article/mickey-mouse-club-dennis-day-daniel-burda-88fdf7ce5f43b03bdea5698279bebe02
Updated 7:05 PM CDT, July 10, 2024
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — A man charged in the death of Dennis Day, an original cast member on Walt Disney’s “Mickey Mouse Club” television program in the 1950s, has been sentenced to just over four years in prison after entering a modified guilty plea this week.
Daniel Burda, 41, pleaded no contest Monday to charges of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of a corpse. Burda was a live-in handyman at Day’s home in Phoenix, Oregon, but Day, 76, had been trying to evict him around the time he disappeared in mid-2018. A no-contest plea is a concession that the state can prove criminal charges at trial and carries the same legal effect as a guilty plea.
Prosecutors said Burda caused Day’s death and then used Day’s identity to spend money.
A police searcher stepped on Day's body and crushed parts of it during a first search. A second search using a cadaver dog from the state police a year later found Day. The time and the damage done by the searcher's misstep caused a delay that prevented a conclusive cause of death.
Such a sad, sad ending. That handy man had good attorneys who managed to get a significant evidence thrown out. Four years. That's some sad shit right there. The cops bungled it.
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