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Brian Deante Gray "just snapped" and beat his dad's roommate 68-year-old Michael Xavier Pfender to death on Monday, Dec. 12, 2023, his father told police according to the affidavit of probable cause obtained by Daily Voice.
Gray was sentenced to serve 15 to 40 years in state prison after pleading guilty to the third-degree murder Before Judge Jeffrey Conrad on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
Gray and Pfender had been drinking and hanging out in a garage on the 1000 block of North Duke Street in Manheim Township when he beat him to death, as detailed in the affidavit.
Pfender appears to have been staying with Gray's family which includes his younger brother, his dad, and his dad's girlfriend, according to the family's social media, but the police did not name the roommates specifically in the court documents.
While two roommates, Pfender, and Gray were hanging out around 2:30 a.m. one roommate went up to their bedroom. At some point, Gray became upset about Pfender’s “disrespectful” comments, but the roommate who saw the encounter thought they reconciled. Around 3:15 a.m. that same roommate got online to play video games with Gray, but at around 4 a.m. he suddenly said he “needed to go."
Shortly after 4 a.m. an "agitated" Gray "banged" on one of the roommates’ doors and explained that "Pfender was not breathing," as stated in the affidavit. He then told another roommate, “I killed Mike,” according to court documents. He never got back online to finish the video game.
The roommates all thought this was a joke, but then they went to the garage and found Pfender's bloodied body. They pleaded with Gray to call 911, but he started proposing "farfetched ideas like removing and disposing of Pfender's body," a witness told police.
Eventually, he allowed his dad to call 911.
The Manheim Township Police were called to Gray's home around 6:30 a.m.
The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office found Pfender suffered blunt force trauma to his head and face, and the police noted a defensive wound on his hand in the affidavit.
Manheim Township Police Detective Kenneth Smith soon charged Gray with felon criminal homicide which was approved by First Deputy District Attorney Cody Wade.
Gray walked into the lobby of the Lancaster City Police Station around 11 a.m. Monday. He said "I f**ked up" and turned himself in, as stated in the affidavit.
He's been held in Lancaster County Prison after being denied bail per state law on homicide charges since his preliminary hearing the morning of his arrest, according to his court docket.
Brian Deante Gray told the court he considered Pfender a friend and has “a lot of remorse” for the killing, adding that he would change things “a thousand times over” if he could.
During sentencing, Judge Conrad noted the following as stated in the release:
"Gray could once again return to society at the completion of his sentence given his young age, and that the best course of action he could take is to 'live life as a model citizen and a good man' to ensure others don’t follow his path. 'Don’t let yourself down. Don’t let your family down.' Judge Conrad told Gray."
The court granted Gray’s request to be eligible for vocational and educational training in prison. “I hope for his sake he goes on to be the man he should have been,” Judge Conrad told Pfender’s family.
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