The sad, tragic life of Daniel Case had meaning after all | Bradenton Herald

Who can say what Daniel Case experienced and saw during the Vietnam War?

All that his mother, Rachel Case, knows is that the good-looking, athletic kid she raised in Dayton, Ohio, the second of her seven children, came home a changed man.

“Oh, he was so different,” she said this past week.

When he returned from the war, he was drinking heavily, evidently trying to forget, and in “the middle of the night, he would wake up screaming and hollering,” she said.

“You would be afraid to touch him. He would be about ready to fight,” she said.

In the decades after the war, he went through a series of jobs, and two failed marriages.

At the time of his beating death in 2009, Daniel was a 59-year-old homeless man — an alcoholic haunted by ghosts in his past — who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Last week, one of his killers, 19-year-old Robert Ramirez, pleaded no contest to beating Daniel to death.

Ramirez and his accomplice, 18-year-old Luis Rincon, planned to rob Pedro and Jesus Tire Shop near 12th Avenue West and 14th Street, prosecutors said.

They brought an aluminum baseball bat and a golf club, intending to smash the windows in the shop to commit a burglary.

When they came upon Daniel, they used the bat and club to beat him to death.

Case never said anything to the teens, never did anything to provoke an attack. His bloodied body was found Feb. 23, 2009, behind Griggs Plumbing, a place where he often stayed, according to a Bradenton Police report.

An employee of the business had called police after finding Case slumped over in a chair.

It was the kind of senseless, random violence we see too much of these days, where killers seem to have lost any respect for others, any respect for life itself.

Daniel’s razor and a few other belongings were on a cinder block in front of the chair, and a copy of the book “The 12 Apostles” was on a thin ledge nearby, according to Herald archives.

At his sentencing, Ramirez, a member of the SUR-13 gang, received a 25-year sentence. He showed no remorse, according to reporter Beth Burger.

Previously, Ramirez’ accomplice, Rincon, received a 30-year sentence.

The way Daniel met his end was a crushing blow to his family, and a personal affront to any Vietnam vet, saddened by the loss of yet another brother, and angered by the cruel way his life was snuffed out.

I never met Daniel, but we were both draftees, both served in the Army, and were in Vietnam at the same time.

Like him, I came from a family of seven children that didn’t have two nickels to rub together.

Daniel had dreams of becoming an English teacher, but with all those kids, his family couldn’t afford to send him to college.

He graduated from high school in 1968, and, without a college deferment, it wasn’t long before he found himself drafted into the U.S. Army.

Apparently, he never considered trying to avoid the draft. After all, his father was a U.S. Navy frogman during World War II. The family was proud of its military tradition.

Daniel got his basic combat training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and then advanced training at Fort Benning. Ga..

Before he shipped off to Vietnam, he married his high school sweetheart, and put aside his exploits on the football field and baseball diamond. Surely, this bright-eyed kid would pursue his dreams, and try to realize his promise, if and when he returned from Vietnam.

But when he came home, he was different, said his mother, 83-year-old Rachel Case.

Despite those demons, he tried to make a go of it, working as a salesman, and later as the assistant manager of a loan company.

Rachel Case moved to the Bradenton area in 1987, and Daniel made his way to Manatee County a couple of years later.

He worked for Wal-Mart for awhile, unloading trucks, she said.

“He was a strong man,” she said, and it is believed that he worked in construction for a time

As his dreams continued to fade, he would take any work he could find, including working as a dishwasher.

Ultimately, he ended up sleeping on a cot behind Griggs Plumbing.

“He was a really nice man,” the Herald reported one of the owners of the business saying shortly after the murder. “Always asking if there was anything he do around here to help.”

Daniel Case was also hoping to reconnect with his three grown daughters, who lived out of state, after being out of touch with them for more than a decade.

Rachel Case was in court for the sentencing last week.

“The only way I can forgive him (Ramirez) is to know he got down on his knees and asked God to forgive him,” she said.

After his death, Daniel Case’s remains were returned to Dayton, where he had a funeral with full military honors.

Rest in peace, brother. Your life had meaning, you served your country, you brought three girls into this world, and you were a decent person. We pray you’re in a better place.

James A. Jones Jr., East Manatee Editor, can be contacted at 745-7021.