A Crimestoppers poster offers a reward for information about the murder of Daushawn Guthridge; his alleged killer has since been charged with a federal crime.
A years-old recording on a PlayStation video game console helped investigators make a rare murder case against the man responsible for the killing, a recently unsealed federal criminal complaint alleges.
During the early morning hours of July 10, 2019, Daushawn Guthridge, 41, was shot and killed at a house on Kent Street in Flint, Michigan. Police found a dozen 9mm casings at the scene. A woman was also shot as she used her body to shield Guthridge’s 9-year-old son.
The woman, identified in the complaint as Victim-2, said three men entered the residence and started speaking with Guthridge when one of the assailants put a gun to her head and told her to sit on the couch. She said she made a point to mention the young boy in the room, but the robbers apparently didn’t much care.
“Where is the money?” one of the men allegedly asked Guthridge, the woman recalled. She told law enforcement that she recognized one of the three intruders as having had business with Guthridge in the past. The dead man’s son said he remembered one of the men having previously purchased marijuana from his dad.
The next day, an anonymous person submitted a tip about what they heard during an online multiplayer basketball game.
“I was on the PlayStation 4 playing with the 41-year-old man that dies at the scene in the 1600 block of Kent Street near Seymour Avenue,” the person told law enforcement. “He was playing the game with several people in a party chat on the game system. I have a short clip that proves that I just want justice to be served…His gamer tag is shawn4uall…We heard all the arguments and further gunshots. I hope this video helps. The conflict starts at the 25-second mark.”
Dustin Hurt, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, reviewed the clip at issue, the complaint says.
“Don’t move,” a man recorded by the video game system says. “Talk quick. Where is the money at? You got thirty seconds bro. I have been sitting outside your house since earlier, man. Where the f—— money at? You got thirty seconds. Think I’m playing? If I don’t find no money in twenty seconds bro, if I don’t find no f—— bows and no money in twenty second bro, I’m sorry…”
In the complaint, the ATF agent notes that the term “bows” is a known reference to one-pound packages of marijuana.
“During the PlayStation video, I could hear another male voice counting down from thirty,” Hurt continues. “At approximately 2:26 into the PlayStation video, I heard the first of twelve gunshots. The twelve gunshots are consistent with the twelve spent 9mm cartridge casings that police found when they responded to the house on Kent.”
In October 2020, Darel King was arrested on state-issued warrants for charges related to Guthridge’s murder. In May 2021, the state charges against were dropped — though Genesee County prosecutors insisted they would quickly file them again. In the interim, King was able to flee the Wolverine State.
“I am running from this motherf—–,” King was allegedly recorded saying during a jailhouse phone call after the hearing in which the charges against him were dropped by local prosecutors.
King was arrested in October 2021 in Nevada on unrelated charges.
In a federal investigation, Hurt played the recording for the woman who was shot on the night of Guthridge’s murder.
“That’s him,” she told the federal agent.” 100%.”
Then Hurt sought out two other people playing online basketball during the shooting using their PlayStation handles, the complaint says. The witnesses who played the recording said they remembered that night just the way the video shows.
Three criminal informants are also cited in the criminal complaint.
One of those informants has died but provided the initial information tying King to Guthridge’s murder by way of a nickname. After including King’s image in a lineup, the female victim identified King as the shooter.
“That is the man who shot me,” the woman told investigators.
The two other informants cited in the complaint listened to the PlayStation recording and said the voice making the threats belongs to King.
According to the complaint, the “theft of drugs and drug proceeds” gave federal agents authority to prosecute the case – because such a robbery impacts intrastate commerce.
On Monday, King was charged with one count each of knowingly and unlawfully affecting commerce by robbery and knowingly using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence in which he used a firearm to commit murder.
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