Black Plague
10-16-2009, 12:51 AM
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-dunbar-sentencing-bn101309,0,3955397.story
WEST PALM BEACH - Citing the depravity of the gang rape and torture of a mother and her son, 12, in the Dunbar Village Apartments, Circuit Judge Krista Marx on Tuesday sentenced three of the four men involved to life in prison.
It was the only appropriate disposition, the judge said.
The standing-room-only crowd gasped in disbelief. As deputies led the men from the courtroom, a scuffle ensued between defendant Tommy Poindexter and an officer. A woman in the crowd began screaming, setting off more yelling.
The 13-year-old brother of defendant Jakaris Taylor rushed the door they led Taylor out of and was tackled and handcuffed by deputies as the boy sobbed. He was let go minutes after the chaos.
It was the end of a 2 1/2-year-old case that shook the community.
Poindexter told the court Tuesday during the sentencing phase of the June 2007 gang rape case that it was a robbery that got out of hand.
Poindexter, 20, and two of his three co-defendants, Taylor, 18, and Nathan Walker, 19, came to Marx's courtroom Tuesday to learn their fate for the vicious attack involving up to 10 masked men at the rundown public housing complex in West Palm Beach.
The case made international headlines for its brutality: The mother was raped and sodomized for hours at gunpoint, she and her son were forced to engage in a sex act, and both were beaten and doused with household chemicals in an attempt to cover up DNA evidence.
Witness after witness took the stand detailing troubled childhoods.
In rambling and often contradictory testimony, Walker's mother, Ruby Walker, spoke of her years in and out of drug and mental health facilities. She said she was an involved parent but couldn't tell defense attorney Robert Gershman what schools her son attended, how many times he repeated the first grade or why his records show failing grades and excessive absences.
She also repeatedly proclaimed her son's innocence.
"My prayers go out to [the victim]," she said. "If I could see her in person I'd tell her I'm not mad at her. I just believe in my heart that my son didn't do it."
Prosecutor Aleathea McRoberts asked for life, saying that "there is no realistic expectation of rehabilitation."
Just before sentencing, a choked-up McRoberts read a letter from the victim, who said the attack will forever haunt her and her son. Her son has thoughts of suicide, plagued with guilt that he couldn't protect his mother that night.
"I'm constantly asking God, why me? Why my son? What did we do to deserve this?"
A fourth co-defendant, Avion Lawson, 16, will be sentenced in December.
These niggers should have gotten the death penalty
WEST PALM BEACH - Citing the depravity of the gang rape and torture of a mother and her son, 12, in the Dunbar Village Apartments, Circuit Judge Krista Marx on Tuesday sentenced three of the four men involved to life in prison.
It was the only appropriate disposition, the judge said.
The standing-room-only crowd gasped in disbelief. As deputies led the men from the courtroom, a scuffle ensued between defendant Tommy Poindexter and an officer. A woman in the crowd began screaming, setting off more yelling.
The 13-year-old brother of defendant Jakaris Taylor rushed the door they led Taylor out of and was tackled and handcuffed by deputies as the boy sobbed. He was let go minutes after the chaos.
It was the end of a 2 1/2-year-old case that shook the community.
Poindexter told the court Tuesday during the sentencing phase of the June 2007 gang rape case that it was a robbery that got out of hand.
Poindexter, 20, and two of his three co-defendants, Taylor, 18, and Nathan Walker, 19, came to Marx's courtroom Tuesday to learn their fate for the vicious attack involving up to 10 masked men at the rundown public housing complex in West Palm Beach.
The case made international headlines for its brutality: The mother was raped and sodomized for hours at gunpoint, she and her son were forced to engage in a sex act, and both were beaten and doused with household chemicals in an attempt to cover up DNA evidence.
Witness after witness took the stand detailing troubled childhoods.
In rambling and often contradictory testimony, Walker's mother, Ruby Walker, spoke of her years in and out of drug and mental health facilities. She said she was an involved parent but couldn't tell defense attorney Robert Gershman what schools her son attended, how many times he repeated the first grade or why his records show failing grades and excessive absences.
She also repeatedly proclaimed her son's innocence.
"My prayers go out to [the victim]," she said. "If I could see her in person I'd tell her I'm not mad at her. I just believe in my heart that my son didn't do it."
Prosecutor Aleathea McRoberts asked for life, saying that "there is no realistic expectation of rehabilitation."
Just before sentencing, a choked-up McRoberts read a letter from the victim, who said the attack will forever haunt her and her son. Her son has thoughts of suicide, plagued with guilt that he couldn't protect his mother that night.
"I'm constantly asking God, why me? Why my son? What did we do to deserve this?"
A fourth co-defendant, Avion Lawson, 16, will be sentenced in December.
These niggers should have gotten the death penalty