Smith, who was 24 in 2011, received a 25-year sentence for manslaughter and an additional 15 years for criminal possession of a weapon, as Town & Village reported.
The victim, 18-year-old Donovan “Keith” Salgado (pictured), was a senior at Washington Irving High School who lived on Ninth Street, a block away from Smith.
The Lo-Down reported at the time that Salgado's mother was the leader of an anti-violence youth group. The shooting reportedly occurred following a game of late-night dice. Smith attempted to rob Salgado prior to the shooting, per DNAinfo.
[Photo via the Daily News]
Why isn't this the NORM rather than the exception?? Really why??
ReplyDeleteAnyone know?
6 years between crime and sentencing? Dios mio.
ReplyDeleteGOOD!
ReplyDeleteWhat is the point of this sentence? Reform? Punishment? Both? If both, 40 years to a 30 year-old six years after the crime which means he'll get out at age 70, three years after the current retirement age for everyone born 1960 or later. How is that "reform"?
ReplyDeleteWhere will he live and what will he do to earn a living when he's released? Who would hire him, a convincted manslaughterer which is just as unemployable as a convicted murderer? How long will this guy work starting at age 70? How long COULD he at that age?
This guy is a piece of shit no doubt, but 40 years is excessive. Sentence him to just the 25 years for manslaughter so he gets out at age 55 which gives only a dozen years to work until retirement age but that's more than what this sentence gives him. His 40-year sentence endangers the non-murderer population because what's to stop him from killing someone in there out of anger, frustration etc? This is a very real concern when someone is old enough to be released alive.
Bottom line is assuming he's still alive at sentence's end - we have to assume he will be - he will be back in free society and on the streets, and if you tell me "Who cares where he lives, what he does, how long he works/can work etc?" well, actually you should care because if he's homeless and/or not working the chances he'll kill again are greater cuz he'll be desperate - older and desperate. Sure he could come out a reformed man, but what if he doesn't?
In my opinion, it should be 15 years for manslaughter and 20 years for murder. You are on drugs if you think either amount of time is a light sentence when it is not. Think about your free life and the world in 1997 then today in 2017 and tell me you're not overwhelmed about how much both has changed, and you've been a free person your whole life. 'Say you are a 40-year old who is sentenced to 20 years for murder and your mother is 70. Your mother may very well die while you are in prison or have only a few years left after you're released. That means no seeing her one last time or seeing her wake and funeral - she might be too sick to visit you before she dies. If you are married with two children aged 10 and 15, you will most likely lose your wife unless she stays with you, but do you want the pain of her visits for twenty years moreover do you want to put her through the pain of visting you for twenty years? You'd most likely tell her to let you go. Your kids are unknown quantities. One or both might cut you out of your life. You will have to live with the loss of your family the rest of your life.
Now you can tell me "So if an 18 year old murders someone he can get out at 38? GTFOH!" Well, riddle me this: what kind of free life do you think he's gonna live when he gets out? He will be shut out of city, state, and federal jobs including the military, law enforcement, and teaching. He'll be shut out numerous private workplaces. His life will be no picnic. The older his parents the more likely they'll die while he's in prison. You think this doesn't severely hurt someone but it could. Also he misses the rest of his 18-19 year old life, all of his twenties, and 80% of his thirties, or basically all his youth. No free life thus no partying, p***y etc. And who would marry and/or have children with him? It would be difficult to find someone accepting of "I gunned down a kid over a dice game."
Again I feel no sympathy for this guy, I'm just saying he might make it out and if he does we have to deal with him.
Thoughts?
And who would marry and/or have children with him?
ReplyDeleteHaving children is highly overrated; I think it's a plus that this guy isn't gonna procreate.
@anon 7:01pm
ReplyDeleteI didn't read that he won't be eligible for parole - which means if he's well behaved he'll likely be out in 20-25.
@7:01 I think he should spend the rest of his life in jail. That would solve everything you describe in terms of public safety.
ReplyDeleteDon't get all your points about watching his family grow old and die behind bars then say you 'have no sympathy.' That's part of the punishment.
Do the crime do the time Enjoy C-2 Upstate is nice this time of year
ReplyDeleteIt's 25 and 15 to run concurrently, not consecutively.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else hear what sounded like about 10 gunshots coming from east of Ave B on Monday 7/10 around 9pm? The spacing between the blasts and the sounds of the blasts themselves made me immediately think it was gunfire, not fireworks. Am I the only one who heard it?
ReplyDeleteIn what way is having children "highly overrated", Scuba Diva? Enlighten me. I didn't say he has to have them, but thanks for putting words in my mouth.
ReplyDeleteI figured it was concurrent not consecutively, thanks 11:13pm. Dumb sentencing as the manslaughter is the conviction carrying more prison time. Just convict him of manslaughter in which use of an illegal firearm was used. I guess it's just formal conviction the judge sentences him to.
My point which you missed entirely, 8:12pm, is he was not sentenced to a life sentence, he will be due to be released at age 70 and society will have to do something about him, assuming he makes it out of prison alive. I don't have to have sympathy for him and never said I did, so thank you, too, for putting words in my mouth I never said.
Lock him up for life? Well, at least he knows his fate. Problem with that is, that's not reform, that's punishment only. Prison is supposed to be about reform as well as punishment, even some murder convictions (I personally don't believe in letting people live freely for murdering someone and think murder is the only unreformable crime.)