Former Davison Co. state’s attorney to face trial

A trial date has been set for a former Davison County state’s attorney who pleaded not guilty to a charge of manslaughter in Arizona.

Dan Gukeisen, 38, was arrested in 2008 shortly after a Sept. 26 incident in which he was allegedly roused from sleep by the activity of two men in front of his Tempe townhome just before 2 a.m. Gukeisen allegedly got into a fight with Garrett Hohn, 22, a student at Arizona State University, and another student. Hohn was found with a stab wound and later died at a hospital.

Gukeisen entered a not guilty plea in January 2009. He is currently free on personal recognizance awaiting an August trial date.

In Arizona, manslaughter is a Class 2 felony that carries with it a maximum of 22 years in prison.

Gukeisen is a Plankinton native who graduated from the University of South Dakota law school and, at the age of 25, became the state’s attorney of Davison County.

He was appointed by the Davison County Commission to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of thenstate’s attorney Jim Miskimins. Gukeisen did not run for election to the post in 1998 when Pat Smith, the current state’s attorney, won the job.

Most recently, Gukeisen had been working as a bankruptcy lawyer in Arizona, where his firm employed 16 people and boasted of filing the second-most bankruptcies in the state.

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