TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — An attack at a transit stop where a man died from being hit with a hatchet is still working its way through the courts. The suspect’s lawyer wants prosecutors to consider Daniel Michael Junior’s record as a juvenile.
Last April, a young married couple was waiting at the streetcar stop at Broadway and South 6th Avenue when someone came up and hit the man in the neck with a hatchet. He died in the hospital. The suspect’s juvenile record could figure into his case so we had a look at his history.
Jacob Couch and his wife Kristen were pausing in Tucson on a cross country trip when Police say Daniel Michael Junior hit Couch in the neck with a hatchet.
Police found Daniel Michael at his home three days after the attack. Charging documents said he told police he’d been drinking heavily and didn’t remember anything. Then he said he confronted Couch because he believed he was using drugs and attacked because the victim had a hand in his pocket. No evidence has ever been released that suggests Jacob Couch had been using drugs or had a weapon.
A hearing to consider a plea deal has been delayed because prosecutors have not taken the case before their own internal panel that considers what to offer as a plea deal—and because Michael’s defense attorney is waiting for records of Michael’s juvenile record with DCS, the Arizona Department of Child Safety. The defense attorney says those records may hold mitigating information.
Records that are available show from the time Daniel Michael was eleven years old he was often in trouble. From 2011 to 2017 there were sixteen petitions to declare him a delinquent for offenses ranging from burglarizing a school, to assault, threats and destroying walls, doors and furniture in group homes where DCS placed him.
Throughout that time, court records show authorities didn’t know where to find his father and only sometimes had contact information for his mother.
At age 16 court records show Michael requested a 72 hour evaluation at a psychiatric facility but a judge did not order the psychiatric commitment. Documents at the time suggest there were no treatment beds available.
After Michael turned 18 we do not see many adult criminal records except a string of low grade misdemeanor charges of theft, trespassing and vandalism from a single day in 2021 and disorderly conduct and multiple counts of criminal damage from one day in 2024 —until he was charged in the attack that killed Jacob Couch.
