Attorneys agreed to a 25-year prison sentence for a homeless Bryan man convicted Wednesday of fatally beating a sex offender with a steel pole.
The deal was reached as the punishment phase of Danny Grammer’s murder trial was set to begin. He could have faced a maximum of 99 years in prison.
But Texas law mandates that a conviction for a murder committed under the immediate influence of sudden passion can have a reduced punishment range of between two and 20 years. That scenario was a possibility in Grammer’s case because two psychologists testified during the trial that they believed Grammer snapped when he killed 20-year-old Dale Ellis in an abandoned downtown Bryan Laundromat.
Grammer conceded that he killed Ellis, but pleaded insanity in the case. The jury disagreed with his defense lawyers arguments that Grammer didn’t know the difference between right and wrong at the time.
During six days of testimony, prosecutors called witnesses who said Grammer had assaulted and threatened to kill Ellis prior to his death. They also presented DNA evidence that indicated he wore a pair of jeans found with Ellis’ blood on them near the crime scene.
Grammer was the victim of rape at the age of 9 and loathed Ellis because Ellis had previously been convicted of molesting a 6-year-old girl, prosecutors said.
The two psychologists — one called by prosecutors and one called by the defense — gave different opinions on Grammer’s state of mind. The defense’s expert said Grammer was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and entered an dissociative state during the beating. The prosecution’s expert said Grammer acted out of rage, but was not insane.
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