QuickTake:

The sentence was more than double the amount requested by defense attorneys but less than what prosecutors wanted to impose on McGee.

A Springfield man was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for the brutal beating of a man he met on Grindr.

The sentence came after a court hearing in which a federal judge said the “horrific” crime likely resulted from mental illness.

Daniel McGee, 26, pleaded guilty in November 2025 to one count of violating the Hate Crime Act involving an attempt to kill in connection with the July 5, 2021, bludgeoning assault that involved striking a man in the head with a wooden tire thumper.

“You do not have a history of spewing anti-gay hyperbole,” Chief U.S. District Judge Michael McShane said Tuesday, March 3. McShane referred to comments made by McGee on the night of the assault.

“You believed the adult victim to be a demon. You were being told by voices, some kind of hallucination, that you needed to kill demons. When officers arrived, you asked if they could just shoot you,” McShane said. 

“The hate aspect of this crime was deeply seated within the mental health psychotic episode you were having,” said McShane, whose 151-month sentence was more than twice the 72-month sentence requested by defense attorneys.

But it was also more than three years less than the 188 months sought by federal prosecutors in the case.

McShane handed down the sentence after hearing testimony from a therapist, Andrea Merg. McGee has autism spectrum disorder and also a bipolar type of schizoaffective disorder, Merg said during the hearing in U.S. District Court in Eugene. 

Irina Hughes, an assistant federal public defender, argued that a shorter 72-month sentence, coupled with the nearly 56 months McGee has served in custody since his arrest the night of the assault, would allow him to soon move out of prison to a more therapeutic environment, such as an adult foster home.

It wasn’t clear, however, what amount of the time McGee has spent imprisoned will apply to his sentence.

Merg described McGee as “more susceptible to influence.” McShane noted evidence that showed McGee viewed “graphically violent anti-gay material” weeks before the planned attack.

In brief comments made in court, McGee stated the date and the name of the current U.S. president. But he also said that while he was “doing all right” when asked by McShane, others were “getting sulfuric acid poisoning.” McGee told McShane he had not been taking any medication since last August.

Merg testified McGee would be much more likely to take prescribed medication in a foster home environment rather than prison.

McGee’s mother, Dawn McGee, read a statement from McGee’s father, who appeared in court but, when asked to read his statement, was overcome with emotion.

The written statement read aloud said in part that Mark McGee felt “shock, grief and shame” upon learning of his son’s actions.

Of the victim, Dawn McGee, reading from the statement, said, “We are profoundly grateful he survived and did not experience permanent physical injury, but understand the psychological impacts may endure.”

Prosecutors said the man assaulted by McGee listened by phone to the hearing but did not wish to speak.

“He has suffered physically and emotionally,” said Joseph Huynh, a federal prosecutor for the case.

Huynh noted the crime involved planning that began “months before,” and that McGee’s online search history included phrases that included “stealing a dead person’s car” and “how many murders are solved.”

“We have an attempted murder of someone because they are gay. That is outrageous. That cannot be tolerated in this society,” Huynh said.