Witness C.J. Pak said he was standing close to Park outside the nightclub and saw Bohnenkamp driving the car and a gunman shooting out from the right rear window.
He said the defendant and the victim had been friends since middle school. The defendant's ex-girlfriend, Michelle Kim, said Bohnenkamp only meant to scare the crowd.
"It's ridiculous," Pak said about the charges against Bohnenkamp. "The real shooters already jumped town."
The next hearing in the case is April 24.
Pak's statement notwithstanding, Bohenkamp may be in more serious straights than his friend thinks. If the killing can be connected to a felony, Bokenhamp could be liable under Colorado's felony murder statute for first degree murder, even if he isn't the gunman. Even if the killing isn't connected to a separate felony, he could be determined to be part of a conspiracy to murder or even a fellow principal in the murder. A statement from someone who knows Bokenhamp placing him at the scene in the driver's seat of the car from which shots were fired, makes some sort of felony charge almost inevitable. At the very least, he becomes an accessory after the fact to manslaughter.
Under the view most favorable to Bohenkamp and his friend, the shooting itself was not connected with any other felony, was not preplanned, and he didn't even know his passenger had a gun until he fired it, and the firing of the gun wasn't intended to hit anyone. This might net the shooter manslaughter charges and Bokenhamp accessory after the fact charges. If Bokenkamp cooperates and rolls on the shooter, in that chain of events, he might even get some leniency in sentencing on that charge.
On the other hand, it the prosecution were to established that the two knew that someone was going to be shot upon the return, he could be primarily liable for depraved indifference first degree murder. For Bokenhamp, even a plea to conspiracy to commit second degree murder would be a considerable improvement from his worst case scenario. At age 22, there is a big difference between life in prison without possibility of parole or the death penalty, under first degree murder, and a lengthy prison term for a Class 2 or Class 3 felony.