“I’m truly sorry,” Daniels said Friday as he turned to face Tyler’s family in the courtroom.
They were there to learn Daniels’ punishment for allowing his bulldogs, M.J. and Fatboy, to escape his yard and attack 7-year-old Tyler. Daniels was convicted in August of manslaughter, and Judge James Fensom sentenced him Friday to 10 years in prison followed by five years of probation. Before the sentencing, Fensom denied Daniels’ motion for a new trial.
When he apologized and was sentenced, Daniels didn’t not appear emotional; he has shown no emotion publicly since his the dogs returned to his house April 2 and he washed Tyler’s blood off them.
Doug White, Daniels’ attorney, urged Fensom to sentence his client to less than the roughly nine years called for in the sentencing guidelines. White expressed concern Daniels’ “characteristic stoic demeanor” led law enforcement and observers to believe his client is without remorse.
White argued the crime was committed in an unsophisticated manner, and Daniels has shown remorse, which are mitigating factors that would allow a judge to dole out a less severe sentence. He worried the jury’s objectivity had been overwhelmed by sympathy for Tyler, but prosecutor Larry Basford argued Daniels’ acquittal of evidence tampering was evidence the jury retained its objectivity.
Brandy Wilhite, Tyler’s mother, wrote a letter that was read in court Friday. Tyler’s family didn’t explicitly ask for a severe sentence.
“We have faith in the judicial process and we know you will impose a fair and just sentence,” the letter said.
Fensom has received several letters on Daniels’ behalf, and his mother, Crystal Daniels, asked Fensom not to punish her son too harshly.
“My son is not a bad person,” she said. “I didn’t raise him to be this bad person everybody’s talking about.”
The manslaughter conviction carries a maximum sentence of 15 years, but Basford didn’t seek a maximum sentence. Instead, he asked for anything greater than what the guidelines called for.
“This is a tragedy that need not have occurred,” Basford said.
(The News Herald - October 11, 2013)
Earlier:
This man has no remorse, the jury saw that right. He's not sorry about terrorizing his neighborhood and killing a child with his monster dogs. He's only sorry for himself, now he has to do what the pit nutters always shout: own the deed. Politicians had taught him and his kind that they can commit murder by proxy and they'll just get their pit bulldogs back, maybe a fine (maybe).
ReplyDeleteSelf-pity is the only emotion these people ever really feel.
PREVENT AND PUNISH THE DEED, REGULATE THE BREED!
ReplyDelete