A man charged in the death of Dennis Day, an original cast member on Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club television program, has been sentenced to more than four years in prison, according to Deadline.
What’s Happening:
- Daniel Burda, 41, pleaded no contest Monday to charges of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of a corpse in the death of Dennis Day, an original cast member on the original Mickey Mouse Club.
- Born in 1942, Day began acting at age 6. The former Disney star was 76 when he was first reported missing by his husband, Ernie Caswell.
- Prosecutors said Burda, a live-in handyman at Day’s home in Phoenix, OR, caused Day’s death and then used his identity to spend money.
- Day had been trying to evict Burda around the time he disappeared in mid-2018, after they had some sort of falling out.
- Burda’s plea, A no-contest plea, is a concession that the state can prove criminal charges at trial and carries the same legal effect as a guilty plea.
- It took nine months for authorities to find Day’s body, where it was eventually found beneath a pile of clothes at the home. His condition left the medical examiner unable to determine a cause of death. Day’s family has since sued the Phoenix Police Department, claiming emotional distress.
- According to The Oregonian, Burda was originally taken into custody on suspicion of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, abuse of a corpse, criminal mistreatment, and identity theft in connection with Day’s death. He was already in custody on an unrelated robbery case when he was additionally charged in Day’s death – coming after police picked up two Oregon women in June 2019 on charges related to the theft of several of Day’s personal items, including a 1990’s Ford Escort station wagon, and the sale of a stolen brooch that belonged to Day back in July of 2018, less than a week after Day was last seen live.
- Burda’s criminal case was reportedly delayed by trips to the Oregon State Hospital to determine his mental fitness to assist in his own defense. Court records show that he faced several other charges while out of custody.
- For more information about Dennis Day and this tragic case, be sure to check out our original report here.