Fla. Men Guilty In Homeless Beating Death

(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.

[txpatriot4us]

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

[downsteamjim]

''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.

[tootall10142]

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.

[bob5ford]

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.

[ladyephesus1]

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????

[swwils]

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.

[swwils]

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.

[swwils]

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!

[humppy-2009]

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 !!!

[gopack443]

Guess they won''t be homeless themselfs for a LONG time!