‘This type of behavior won’t be tolerated’: Man gets prison for killing friend who allegedly WANTED to die
A Wyoming man has been sentenced to four years in prison in Colorado for shooting his friend who allegedly wished to die.
Two years ago, Mark Switzer, 73, was accused of killing Nathan “Tom” Combs, 49, in May of 2017, after Combs’ body was found close to a tractor trailer near Hereford, Colorado. Combs had been shot two times in the head. Switzer was arrested in March of 2023 in connection with the killing and pleaded guilty to manslaughter-aiding suicide (with a first-degree murder charge dismissed) in February of 2025.
“Regardless of whether the victim asked him to assist in his death, this defendant still killed Nathan Combs and this type of behavior won’t be tolerated in our community,” said Katherine Fitzgerald, 19th Judicial Deputy District Attorney, during Switzer’s sentencing hearing.
According to CBS News, the affidavit for the case states that Switzer told Combs’ wife her husband asked Switzer to kill him. Switzer allegedly admitted to Combs’ wife that he had shot and killed Combs. Combs was facing prison time for the sexual abuse of a minor at the time.
A Wyoming News outlet cited by CBS stated that Combs had been arrested in 2016 on child exploitation charges. Combs, who was married and in his late forties, was charged with having sexual relations with a 16-year-old girl in Laramie County, Wyoming, and with exchanging explicit photos with the teenager. The abuse allegedly occurred over a three-month period before Combs was arrested.
Reportedly, Combs was unwilling to go to prison because he feared how other prison inmates would treat him because of his sex crimes, and he told a friend (not Switzer) that he “wasn’t goin’ back to jail” and “I know what they do to people like that [sex crime offenders].” He allegedly also told the friend, “Don’t tell anybody but I’ve got it arranged,” and “Look after [my wife], stop in say hi to her and see how she’s doing.”
Combs bought a life insurance plan to benefit his wife and signed a will leaving all his possessions to his wife in the weeks leading up to the shooting.
After the discovery of Combs’ body, his wife relayed to investigators the conversation she had with Switzer in which Switzer confessed to her that he killed her husband at Combs’ request. Investigators discovered a .22 caliber rifle in Switzer’s truck and text messages between Switzer and Combs, which revealed Switzer to be the killer.
Euthanasia advocates promote assisted suicide as mercy killing, yet even in countries where so-called “medical assistance in dying” (MAiD) is available, people are convicted for aiding and abetting suicide outside the hospital system. For example, in Canada, where MAiD is widely available, a man was charged with 14 counts of second-degree murder and 14 counts of counseling or aiding suicide for distributing suicide kits.
Regardless of the motivation, euthanasia kills a human being and prematurely cuts a valuable life short.
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]