Killer of man in Laughlin agrees to plea bargain

Bill Gang

Friday, Oct. 1, 1999 | 10:14 a.m.

A man scheduled to stand trial next week in the murder of a 63-year-old Arizona man whose body was found in Laughlin in February has pleaded guilty rather than face a jury.

Under the deal, David Dunkle, 28, will have to serve at least 50 years in prison before he will be eligible for parole on his pleas to first-degree murder with a deadly weapon and robbery.

He will be sentenced Nov. 18 by District Judge Jack Lehman.

Dunkel was arrested in Farmington, Utah, just north of Salt Lake City, after a highway patrolman stopped his vehicle. The car had a bullet hole and blood splattered on one side, Metro Police Lt. Wayne Petersen said at the time.

"Dunkle told the Utah trooper that he had killed a man in Laughlin during the previous 24 hours," Petersen said.

The car belonged to the victim, John Ungerer Sr. of Flagstaff, Ariz., and police found the man's credit cards and a loaded gun inside the vehicle.

Thirteen hours after Utah authorities notified Metro of Dunkle's confession, a Laughlin man stopped to fix a flat tire and found the victim's body in some bushes about 100 feet off the west side of Casino Drive in Laughlin.

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