FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Sept. 19, 2008

Fla. Men Guilty In Homeless Beating Death

2 Fla. Men, Who Were Teens When They Assaulted Victim, Found Guilty Of 2nd Degree Murder

    • Officials released the surveillance video from Florida Atlantic University showing two men beating one of the victims with what appear to be bats.

      Officials released the surveillance video from Florida Atlantic University showing two men beating one of the victims with what appear to be bats.  (CBS)

    • Brian Hooks, 18, is escorted into the Broward County Jail, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006, in Fort Lauderdale.

      Brian Hooks, 18, is escorted into the Broward County Jail, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006, in Fort Lauderdale.  (AP)

    • Thomas S. Daugherty, 17, is escorted into the Juvenile Assessment Facility, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

      Thomas S. Daugherty, 17, is escorted into the Juvenile Assessment Facility, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.  (AP)

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  • Play CBS Video Video Murder Suspects In Custody

    Only On The Web:Trish Regan reports from Florida, where two teenagers suspected of killing a homeless man and beating two others turned themselves in to authorities.

  • Video Arrests Made In Beating Case

    A video tape released last week showed the brutal beating of a homeless man with a baseball bat. As Trish Regan reports, two suspects are now in custody.

  • Video Teens Surrender To Fla. Cops

    Two South Florida teens suspected in the beatings of three homeless men, which was caught on tape, turned themselves into police. WFOR's Shomari Stone reports.

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(AP)  A jury found two South Florida men guilty on Friday of fatally beating a homeless man with a baseball bat and viciously attacking two others.

Surveillance video of the 2006 rampage captured Brian Hooks, 21, and Thomas Daugherty, 19, repeatedly hitting one of the victims, causing national outrage among the homeless community.

Hooks and Daugherty were found guilty of second-degree murder as well as two counts each of attempted second-degree murder with a weapon for beating two other homeless men.

Prosecutors said Norris Gaynor, 45, was sleeping on a park bench when the men, who were then teens, beat him to death. Prosecutors said Hooks and Daugherty were drunk that night, concealed the bats in their pants and then hide before sneaking up on their victims.

The surveillance footage shows a surviving victim desperately trying to cover his body from numerous blows.

Defense attorneys had argued the teens never intended to kill Gaynor and urged the jury to consider a lesser charge of third-degree felony murder.

They also tried to cast doubt on earlier testimony from William Ammons, 21, who pleaded guilty in May to felony murder and aggravated assault in the beatings. They said Ammons had a "biased interest to fabricate facts in the case to save" himself and has admitted lying to police 80 times.

Ammons will face between 10 and 20 years in prison. He is awaiting sentencing.

Jacques Pierre, 61, was assaulted first in the attack captured on video.

Ammons confessed to hitting a third man, 51-year-old Raymond Perez, with a plastic sword and admitted that he fired shots from a paintball gun at Gaynor. A prosecutor said Ammons did not hit anyone with a baseball bat or other deadly weapon, a key factor in his plea to lesser charges.




©MMVI The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Add a Comment See all 13 Comments
by txpatriot4us September 21, 2008 9:29 PM EDT
They are going to be girl freinds for the first two big fellas to show up with a carton of cigarettes.
I hope their life is full of misery until the day they die !!!
Posted by humppy
------------------------------------
Good Ole TYRONE 6''5 350 lbs will surely make their aquaintenance....but alas it is a NO Smoking World Now
only the Trustee'' who can find smokes get to sneak em LOL
Reply to this comment
by downsteamjim September 21, 2008 11:57 AM EDT
''National outrage among the homeless community'' No, it was outrage from normal people who cannot understand we need to share this planet with such baseball bat weilding trash.
Reply to this comment
by tootall10142 September 20, 2008 1:13 PM EDT
THIER PARENTS MUST BE REALLY PROUD OF THEM TODAY.MY HEART GOES OUT TO THEM.WITH THAT SAID. I TRULY HOPE THESE YOUNG PEOPLE CAN DEFEND THEMSELVES WITHOUT A BAT THET ARE GOING TO GET PLENTY OF PRACTICE.THE RAVENS HAVE GATHERED OVER THE CORN FIELD AND THE PICKENS LOOK MIGHTY GOOD, SAID ONE LIFER TO ANOTHER AS THE FRESH MEAT IS PARADED THROUGH THE CELL BLOCK.
Reply to this comment
by bob5ford September 20, 2008 12:02 PM EDT
This would seem like a good death penalty case. There will be no "rehabilitating" these criminals, only re-commission and re-imprisonment, all at taxpayers expense.
Reply to this comment
by ladyephesus1 September 20, 2008 11:36 AM EDT
Some people are just walking Demons nowadays.
Its sad to think that someone could have the heart
to beat a homeless person at all.
And for what????

Reply to this comment
by swwils September 20, 2008 8:36 AM EDT
Defense attorney''s man if it wasn''t for attorney''s we wouldn''t need attorney''s.#rd degree murder how can you beat someone with a ball bat and not entend in hurting them,freakin public pretenders.
Reply to this comment
by swwils September 20, 2008 8:33 AM EDT
Boxing gloves or panties will be their choice of attire.No ball bats allowed.It is just like an old Frank Zappa tune,those that know that is all that needs said.
Reply to this comment
by swwils September 20, 2008 8:30 AM EDT
They ought too take those two out ,and beat them with bat''s.What the other inmates in prison will do to them is just as sickening though I guess unless they like it that way!
Reply to this comment
by humppy-2009 September 19, 2008 8:00 PM EDT
They are going to be girl freinds for the first two big fellas to show up with a carton of cigarettes.
I hope their life is full of misery until the day they die !!!
Reply to this comment
by gopack443 September 19, 2008 7:20 PM EDT
Guess they won''t be homeless themselfs for a LONG time!
Reply to this comment
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