Ameer Best, 18; Nashir Fisher, 17, and Kinta Stanton, 17, who jumped Sean Patrick Conroy on a dare as he walked the underground Market-Frankford El concourse March 26, 2008, were each sentenced to 12 1/2 to 25 years in state prison by Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart.
"It's a frightening proposition - Sean Conroy was just going to work," said Minehart, who determined that the minimum sentence of five to 10 years was not enough, but also declined the prosecutor's request to give the defendants the maximum of 20 to 40 years for the most serious charges each faced.
The judge's midrange sentence did not sit well with Sharon and Stephen Conroy.
"I'm disappointed," Sharon Conroy said on the sidewalk in front of the Criminal Justice Center. "I don't think anybody left there happy today. As a parent, we were hoping for the maximum. Realistically, at least something equal to Sean's life expectancy."
She and her former husband said that they were insulted by the apologies that the three defendants and their family members offered during the sentencing hearing, given the moments of laughter they engaged in during previous court hearings and the August trial.
During that trial, Best, of 24th Street near Norris, and Fisher, of Marvine Street near Tioga, were each convicted of third-degree murder and conspiracy. Stanton, of Smedley Street near 49th, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy.
"Sean was my only child," Sharon Conroy told Judge Minehart before sentencing. "He was my heart. My soul. I still reach for the phone to call him when I see and hear things that he would like. I can't sleep. I wake up to his pleas for mercy. I can't get past the laughter. You laughed up to your verdicts," she said to the three teens, who sat in handcuffs behind their respective attorneys.
"You have turned our lives upside down just because your street cred was more important than human life. . . . Just because you didn't want to be 'no punks,' " she said, referring to the reasons the defendants had given homicide detectives for attacking Conroy.
Stephen Conroy told the judge that the defendants lacked remorse and were feeling sorry for themselves only because they realized that they were going to prison.
"I believe he was targeted because he was alone and because he was white," Stephen Conroy said. "This was a hate crime.
"You were judge and jury to my son and you gave him the death penalty," Conroy said, looking at the defendants.
Even in a city with so much crime, said Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Juliano Coelho, "this crime shocked the conscience" due to its unprovoked randomness.
Sean Conroy, who was engaged to be married and was on the way to the coffee shop he managed at 12th and Market, she explained, "is every one of us. The commuter. The pedestrian who uses the subway. The worker. The son. The fiancé."
The defendants, along with Arthur Alston and Rasheem Bell, both 18, who pleaded guilty and will be sentenced Nov. 19, cut classes at Simon Gratz High and took the subway to Center City the day of the attack.
As a group, they decided to jump a random stranger for kicks, they told detectives after being arrested.
Stanton was rearrested in April for accidentally shooting a friend while on house arrest, and faces aggravated-assault and other charges. Alston was also rearrested for a fight that he got into while on house arrest in April and faces aggravated-assault charges.
Yesterday, Stanton, Best and Fisher took turns expressing sorrow to the Conroys and to their own families, who packed the sixth-floor courtroom.
"I'm not no bad kid and I am remorseful," Stanton said.
"I can't contradict anything [that's been] said because a life has been taken," said Fisher, who wept when his mother, Audrey Fisher, addressed the court.
"To the Conroy family, I know how it feels to lose a family member," said Best, who lost his mother to drugs and a brother to street violence.
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