In a soft baritone voice, Kevie “KL Tha General” Durham spewed vulgar rap taunts aimed at rival gangsters, vowing to kill them as casually as a prep quarterback might recount a touchdown pass.

“They ben throwin’ slugs but they ain’t ben trying to aim with it,” he rapped, chiding rivals for being weak gang-bangers. “I’m goin’ to put names on some bullets.”

While Durham was rapping “Head Shot” at Denver nightclubs patronized by both Bloods and his Crips, there were two warrants seeking his arrest: one for armed robbery in North Carolina, the other for escape from Colorado community corrections.

Denver Police Chief Robert White recently acknowledged that a gang war in which up to a dozen members from four street gangs have been murdered has its origin in Durham’s death. He was shot dead Nov. 23 outside the nightclub Beach, across the street from Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

The anger that the 24-year-old’s death fomented can be attributed to the prominence of talented rappers whose songs serve as anthems for street gangs.

“These are guys that they would actually go to war for,” said Christopher Diggins, CEO at Mile High Bad Azz Entertainment, and a music producer and agent for musicians. “I believe (Durham) could have grown into being a (marketable) entertainer.”

That Durham was released from Sterling Correctional Facility to a halfway house and allowed to pursue his budding rap career can be attributed to a series of failures by authorities in both states.

After a drug conviction in Arapahoe County, no one transferred Durham to North Carolina to face a robbery charge there. After he escaped from the halfway house, the state’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit failed to track him down while he was making public rap appearances at Denver nightclubs and advertising on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

The themes of Durham’s raps often glorified the gangster life, took swipes at police, proclaimed his membership with the Eastside Crips, threatened to shoot his enemies, and taunted snitches and members of other gangs.

“I’m glad I made it out this stretch … livin’ lavish, runnin’ from the law, runnin’ with my dawgs,” he boasted in a rap song called “I’m Blessed.”

Durham had a string of juvenile convictions when he was 15 and 16, including criminal mischief, burglary and assault and menacing with a weapon, according to court records. In 2008, when he was 17, Durham moved to Salisbury, N.C., to live with his mother, records show.

Later that year, Durham was accused of pulling a handgun, demanding money and threatening to shoot Randy Kluttz. He took $9.

“They called me back and said they captured him and I haven’t heard anything more,” Kluttz said in a recent phone interview, referring to the Salisbury Police Department. Told that Durham had died, Kluttz said, “Did he? That’s good,” and hung up.

Durham fled to Colorado before a warrant was filed for his arrest on the charge of robbery with a dangerous weapon.

He enrolled at Cut Up Beauty Academy. But before he learned how to cut hair, he was arrested with two friends breaking into an apartment and stealing a backpack.

It’s unclear whether authorities at the time were aware of the robbery charge — the court file has no indication that officials found the warrant out of North Carolina. Judge Michael Spear sentenced Durham to two years of probation, allowing him to attend Trinidad State Junior College full-time.

It wasn’t until he was arrested carrying methamphetamine with a parolee that police discovered the felony warrant out of North Carolina, court records indicate. At that point, the Arapahoe County district attorney’s office created a separate case for the North Carolina charges, a measure that seemingly guaranteed his extradition.

Public defender Claire Soto filed a May 29, 2012, motion seeking to reduce Durham’s four-year sentence: “Mr. Durham is requesting the court to reduce his sentence so that he may get transferred to North Carolina sooner and handle that pending matter and also to expedite the time it will take for him to get all of those mistakes behind him. … He wants to get back to his daughter and family as soon as possible so that he can be the best father he can be,” Soto wrote.

The motion was denied. Durham spent his time in prison writing rap songs, working in the kitchen and cutting prisoners’ hair.

Durham was transferred to Phoenix House — a halfway house — in Henderson on Oct. 16, 2012. He escaped a month later, and a warrant was issued for his arrest in January 2013.

Phoenix House director Angie Riffel declined to comment.

DOC spokeswoman Adrienne Jacobson said Phoenix House and a community corrections committee had decided Durham qualified for placement in the halfway house.

Documents from Arapahoe County District Court spelled out details about Durham’s Colorado sentence but did not mention the pending North Carolina case, Jacobson said.

Sgt. Travis Shulenburger arrested Durham for robbery in Salisbury, N.C. He said he recalls being notified in 2011 by Colorado officials of Durham’s arrest but couldn’t recall why Durham wasn’t returned to North Carolina.

“Maybe we weren’t notified about his release,” Shulenburger said. Or, he added, maybe authorities decided not to go to the expense of bringing him back. “You can always make a decision on a case-to-case basis whether to extradite.”

Rowan County, N.C., District Attorney Brandy Cook did not return calls to explain the lack of extradition, but a clerk said the robbery warrant is still active.

Jacobson said that before Durham’s transfer to the halfway house, he wasn’t listed as a gang member. A parole fugitive apprehension unit repeatedly tried to track him down at his known haunts and received tips about rap appearances, but usually a day late, she said.

“To say that any one factor might have prevented Mr. Durham from being in the bar that night (he was killed) is impossible,” Jacobson said.

On Nov. 23, Durham had methamphetamine in his system when he was shot. He had abrasions on his arms and hands, indicating he had been in a fistfight. One bullet pierced his left lung and the left ventricle of his heart, and he was shot in the abdomen and right knee, according to an autopsy report.

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or twitter.com/kirkmitchell