Daniel Gukeisen
More than three months after his arrest on suspicion of stabbing a man to death, a former South Dakota prosecutor turned Tempe bankruptcy attorney has officially been charged with manslaughter.
A spokesman with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office made the announcement yesterday in a news release, saying Daniel Gukeisen, 37, was indicted by a grand jury in the stabbing death of of a 22-year-old. Authorities say he attacked Garrett Hohn at about 2 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2008 over some kind of argument about noise outside the attorney’s downtown Tempe town home.
Gukeisen, whose law firm maintains the interestingly-named website, www.wantafreshstart.com, was originally arrested by Tempe police just a few days after the death.
It is still unclear why caused the delay between his arrest and charging. Neither a spokesman with the county attorney’s office, nor a spokeswoman with the Tempe police department knew what caused the delay. The indictment came down on Jan. 7.
Gukeisen appears to have maintained a lucrative practice specializing in bankruptcy cases, even making appearances on local TV, talking about the recent rise in bankruptcy cases amid the financial downturn.
The Rapid City Journal reported that Gukeisen was also worked as a prosecutor in Lawrence County, South Dakota as recently as 2004.
Authorities say the victim and a friend were walking home from a club on Mill Avenue when they were confronted by Gukeisen. What happened next is still unclear, but police say it ended with the attorney stabbing Hohn, who later died at a local hospital.