The family of Danny Garofalo wants justice.
Gilbert police say a fight led to his roommate, 21-year-old Zachary Penton, shooting and killing Garofalo back in August.
Penton has now officially been charged with second-degree murder. Garofalo’s family thinks Penton killed their son in cold blood.
"He's taken a beautiful, beautiful and wonderful young man from a lot of people that loved and cared for him," said his father Dennis Garofalo.
Dennis says it’s a tweet, sent by an account that looks to be Penton’s but that has since been deleted, that has him convinced. It went out two days before the murder and read “I need to move out of my place before I viciously murder my roommates.”
"I don't know how that can be when you read the tweets," added Garofalo in a Skype interview.
According to a Gilbert Police report, Penton told officers that Danny became violent that day and that it led to a fight. Penton then grabbed his gun and shot Garofalo.
"My son was not a violent man. You can talk to anybody that knew him Danny was not violent he was a love he brightened up the room when he walked in," said Garofalo.
We asked the County Attorney’s Office if the tweet was considered evidence by prosecutors. They declined to comment. But they did say that “Prosecutors filed the charges that we best supported by the evidence in this case.”
Penton’s attorney, Josh Davidson, spoke with ABC15 late Thursday. He wouldn’t confirm if the Twitter account belonged to Penton. However, he did say as the trial continues to move forward more information would come out.
