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Seasoned Vet
 
Group: Past PNET Supporter
Last Login: 10/22/2008 8:18 PM
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Murder trial judge flays NFL players
By Paul Pinkham
Times-Union staff writer
Pro football players in Jacksonville who "act like gangsters" share the blame for youth violence, a judge said before sentencing three young men yesterday in the murder of a U.S. Marine outside an Arlington nightclub.
"I don't know why you all want to run around with guns like gangsters," Circuit Judge Charles Arnold said before giving each defendant the maximum prison sentence. Two of the three defendants were 17 at the time of the shooting last year but were prosecuted as adults in the murder of Lance Cpl. Timotheus Stamper.
Arnold said one reason could be that their heroes are poor role models.
"Some of these rap musicians and a small percentage of NFL players, some who even live in our town, want to run around and act like gangsters, drive around in fancy cars ... [and] smoke cocaine," Arnold said.
Arnold didn't name specific players or musicians and told the Times-Union he wasn't referring to any Jaguars. He declined to comment further.
Circuit Judge Charles Arnold
-- File
Two years ago Jaguars wide receiver Jimmy Smith tested positive for cocaine following a traffic stop by Jacksonville police but wasn't charged. He currently is serving a four-game suspension for violating the National Football League's substance abuse policy.
Three other Jaguars are named in a current federal drug investigation after a three-time convicted drug dealer told federal agents he sold and gave marijuana to them. They haven't been charged and deny wrongdoing.
Also, former first-round draft pick R. Jay Soward is out of football after three drug suspensions by the league.
Team officials said they had no comment on Arnold's remarks.
Stamper, 18, was fatally shot in May 2002 when a carload of young men opened fire on his car after a fistfight inside Evolution nightclub in Arlington. Three of his passengers were injured by the gunfire.
"This was a depraved act committed by teenagers against teenagers," said Assistant State Attorney Mose Floyd.
Friends and relatives said Stamper was home on leave from Hawaii to celebrate his girlfriend's graduation and tried to intervene in the fistfight involving a friend.
"My son had signed up to ... fight terrorism and had in fact become a victim of the same," said Willie Stamper, who wore his son's camouflage fatigues and dog tag to court.
Arnold sentenced John Patterson, 18, to life in prison for second-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder. Patterson was convicted by a jury last month.
DeWayne Ward, 18, and Marcus Jackson, 19, both pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified against Patterson. Arnold sentenced them to 40 years each, the maximum allowed under their plea bargains, even though prosecutors asked for less based on their age and cooperation. Jackson was the only one of the three to apologize to the Stampers yesterday; the other two asked their lawyers to express their sorrow.
Stamper's family wanted no leniency and said they were relieved by Arnold's sentence.
"In our eyes, you are the devil and demons in the flesh," Vivie Stamper, the victim's mother, told the defendants in court. "You stole my son's life. ... You are vile threats to every human being."
Arnold decried the violence that he predicted would lead to a return to vigilantism like the "wild, wild West."
"If somebody doesn't get a handle on this violence," he said, "then the people are going to rise up and take the law into their own hands."
He told the defendants most gangsters either die or go to prison.
"Each of you has achieved your goal," the judge said. "You're big time gangsters ... and you're going to go to prison."
Staff writer Paul Pinkham can be reached at (904) 359-4107 or ppinkhamjacksonville.com.
Evil Unchecked Grows, and Evil Tolerated Poisens The Entire System. Jahwal Nehru ------------------------------------------------------------- In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
Mark Twain.
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Trooper
Group: Registered User
Last Login: 11/28/2008 9:09 PM
Posts: 641,
Visits: 168
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good. because this gangta **** is becoming a plague. **** on all three of them. they killed an honorable member of our brotherhood. let them rot in jail and get sodomized by real "gangstas"
AIRBORNE GODS WALKING THE EARTH....
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