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READER FEEDBACK

Up to 25 years in jail for 3 in Sean Conroy killing

By MENSAH M. DEAN
Philadelphia Daily News

deanm@phillynews.com 215-854-5949

The parents of the Starbucks manager who died of an asthma attack triggered by an unprovoked beating from five teenagers last year expressed disappointment with the sentences three of the attackers received yesterday afternoon.

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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Comments

Comment removed.

Posted 06:52 AM, 10/30/2009

stoneman

Trash, scum, waste, filth, ignorant, stupid, no future, will return later in life, enjoy prison YOUNG BOYS......he he.

Posted 06:59 AM, 10/30/2009

blackknight

Where is the outrage? This is a disgusting crime committed by kids who obviously were too cocky to realize the trouble the were in. On house arrest one has a gun the other gets in a fight and then laughing? They aren't laughing now. And the father had a point about it being a hate crime. If the roles were reversed and three white teens randomly attacked an African American man and murdered him, Al Sharpton would be parading all over in front of any camera that would take his picture.

Posted 06:59 AM, 10/30/2009

poger67

They'll be out in 12 years - at age 29 - all full of prison "reform". I'd bet they're all back in jail within a year of that for murder (again). As of now, at least one person's clock is ticking because this judge was way to lenient. In all probability, someone will die 12,13,14 years from now at the hands of these scum bags. They should have been put down like the dogs that they are.

Posted 07:30 AM, 10/30/2009

buhtz

They were laughing during the trial and when they are sentenced they are remorseful?? One says he is not a bad kid, the other says I know what it is like to lose a family member?? Bull!! Should have given all 3 the needle right there in the court room. Scum.

Posted 07:33 AM, 10/30/2009

TheRealDeal

The father was right. This was a hate crime !!! This makes me sick !!! Some black cildren don't get into a swimming pool and the whole country hears about it. Five BLACK punks, beat a WHITE man to his death, and no one seems to care !! The media is a joke! Let's all cater to the black race...watch what you say, you may offend the black race !!!

Posted 07:35 AM, 10/30/2009

johnny o

Give 'em the whole 25.

Posted 07:42 AM, 10/30/2009

dont-take-it-personal

These boys were kids when the offense happened. I'm sure at their age, all you haters did something you regretted. They never attempted to murder the man. They just tried to rough him up. Unfortunately he died. You know how he died? Of an ashtma attack. It's not like he got his skull kicked in, like the kid at the phillies game. I didn't happened to see any of the scum, death penalty, Al Sharpton, or your lame cries for justice on the phillies case. The poor kid got jumped outside of the phillies stadium by three white men, and had no defensive wounds on him. You know how he died? Blunt trauma to the head! Took that a-s whoopin to the grave! Not by high-schoolers. By grown a-s white men(blackknight). I'm sure at their sentencing phase when they get probation, I'll hear another lame cry from you one-sided hypocrites!

Posted 07:49 AM, 10/30/2009

dont-take-it-personal

Comment removed.

Posted 07:59 AM, 10/30/2009

hemipristis

the double standard is alive and well

Posted 08:10 AM, 10/30/2009

brio

Throw away the key.

Posted 08:15 AM, 10/30/2009

dont-take-it-personal - I may have done things I regretted at their age, but it certainly did not involve my friends and I jumping and beating an innocent stranger! At our worst, my friends and a were a bit mischievous, not violent street thugs. We were raised right by an intact nuclear family.

Posted 08:21 AM, 10/30/2009

jackpaul

The Real Deal - Don't speak for the black race if your not black please. I'm black.......and I do care. I find this type of violent attrocious. And my heartfelt sympathies go to this young man's parents. But, that doesn't make what happen to the black kids at the pools right either. Your mixing apple and oranges.