DENVER -- The man accused of killing a 31-year-old man in Broomfield will face a first-degree murder charge and will not be charged with a hate crime, prosecutors said Thursday.

Matt Joe Weber admitted to stabbing Matias Mondragon outside the Night Owl Lounge early Sunday, Broomfield police said.

Prosecutors decided not to add a hate crime charge even though Mondragon's family said earlier this week they were afraid he was attacked because he was gay. Friends and family said Mondragon recently moved to Broomfield from New Mexico to be with a new partner.

"There must not have been evidence presented that raised it to the level of a hate crime charge," District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Krista Flannigan told the Daily Camera.

According to the arrest affidavit, Weber told police he got into a verbal fight with Mondragon after Mondragon called Weber and his friends a slur.

Weber said he "flipped (Mondragon) off" before he and friends left the Night Owl.

Weber told police he stabbed Mondragon after Mondragon hit his friend in the head with a beer bottle and then turned to attack him. Witnesses told police Mondragon appeared to push someone down before running from the Night Owl parking lot. They said Weber chased after Mondragon.

Weber fled but called police a few hours later to turn himself in, police said.

The mandatory sentence for a first-degree murder conviction is life in prison without parole, or the death penalty.

Weber was being held in the Broomfield County jail.